A Randomized, Prospective Study of Operative and Non-Operative Treatment of Injuries of the Fibular Collateral Ligaments of the Ankle*

Cochrane in CORR ®: Surgical Versus Conservative Treatment for Acute Injuries of the Lateral Ligament Complex of the Ankle in Adults (Review)

“…Since this review was conducted, at least two more randomized controlled trials have been published comparing conservative and surgical management for acute lateral ligament complex injuries [8,11]. Both of these trials failed to demonstrate significant differences between surgery and conservative management in their primary outcomes, further corroborating the findings of this Cochrane review.…”

“…A single trial published by Prins [10] in 1978 demonstrated several benefits of surgical management -results that differed substantially from other published trials, including several more-recent and better-designed efforts [8,[11][12][13] -and greatly influenced the pooled estimate for many outcomes. The pronounced and, occasionally differing, direction of Prins' results may be attributable to the trial being only quasi-randomized, resulting in no concealment of treatment allocation or blinding.…”

Operative treatment of lateral ligament instability

“…Patients may have a subjective sense of instability where an innocuous misstep may lead to another ankle injury [8]. Recurrent ankle sprains may alter the biomechanics at the ankle joint which can potentially lead to cartilage degeneration over time [9][10][11][12][13]. Up to 93% of patients with ankle instability have associated intra-articular pathology [14][15][16].…”

Fibular Malalignment in Individuals With Chronic Ankle Instability

“…Furthermore, osteoarthritis is thought to develop in about 80% of patients with longstanding CAI, some of whom require surgical treatment. 24,36,46 Therefore, it is important to clarify the major causes of CAI and to prevent recurrent lateral ankle sprain.…”