A Prospective study on the surgical management of medial malleolar fractures of ankle joint

Abstract

Malleolar fractures are the most common ankle injuries treated by orthopedic surgeons. Objectives: The present study was undertaken to study the functional outcome of surgically managed medial malleolar fractures of ankle in adults. Material and Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 12 cases of medial malleolar fractures of ankle in adults, treated surgically by using various implants while 22 conservatively. This study was conducted for a period of 18 months and the results were assessed using criteria of Baird and Jackson’s ankle scoring system for evaluating the functional outcome. Results: This study shows the importance of pre-operative understanding of fracture mechanics for good reduction and internal fixation, in turn better functional outcome. Good functional results were obtained by surgical treatment of medial malleolar ankle fractures. There were no intra-operative complications observed in this study. Of the 12 patients with medial malleolar fractures treated surgically excellent to good results were achieved in 10 (83.3%) cases, fair and poor in 1 (8.33%) case each. Conclusion: Conservative treatment in selected fractures is justified. In our study the functional outcome and the results of operative treatment were found to be good as these operative methods restores the anatomy, biomechanics and contact loading characteristics of the ankle.