Late Revision of Fibular Malunion in Ankle Fractures

Realignment-lengthening osteotomy for malunited distal fibular fracture

“…Reconstruction may reduce the progression of degenerative changes and can decrease the symptoms of arthritis by decreasing instability and load on the arthritic locations of the joint [1,17,18]. c Follow-up radiograph shows complete healing of the osteotomy site and restoration fibular length and alignment Several procedures have been described for correction of malunited malleolar fractures and their benefit in terms of function and pain relief have been described.…”

“…Offierski reported the results of treatment of 11 patients with fibular malunion treated by lengthening osteotomy and reported (91 %) fair to good [18]. Clinical factors affecting outcome were mostly thought to be the quality of reduction and the presence of osteoarthritis at the time of revision.…”

Lengthening osteotomy of the fibula for post-traumatic malunion

“…Several different procedures for correction of malunited malleolar fracture and the clinical outcome have been described [6,10,14,16,21,22]. The age of the patient, the type of initial treatment and the delay from initial to final reconstruction either did not influence the outcome, or only affected it very slightly.…”

Treatment of malunion in ankle fractures

“…Functional outcome can be measured on the AOFAS score [1]. Progression of pre-existing degenerative signs in some patients is described in all series [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. It can be estimated that, over a follow-up period of 3-7 years [2][3][4]7], 10-15% of all patients will need further surgery in the form of ankle fusion.…”

“…If no or few degenerative changes are present, an osteotomy of some sort should be performed [2][3][4]. Only in cases of severe arthritis and/or deformation will ankle arthrodesis be indicated [5][6][7][8].…”