Ankle Fracture Fixation Patients: Good News

A new prospective follow-up study has found that most patients who undergo ankle fracture fixation can rest easy for about 10 years. The authors, who hail from Hospital for Joint Diseases, The University of Alabama, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, and New York University, found that patients who underwent open reduction internal fixation of an unstable ankle fracture maintained long-term functional outcomes.

The research team investigated the results from 141 patients; follow-up data were obtained at a mean length of 11.6 years postoperatively. Using radiographs at followup, they found that 63% of participants had either mild (31%), moderate (22%), or severe (10%) arthritis. The results also revealed that fracture dislocation at the time of the injury was a significant predictor of radiographic posttraumatic osteoarthritis at followup.

Kenneth Egol, M.D., professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center, told OTW, “Ankle fractures are among the most common orthopaedic injuries treated. There is not much long-term data on their outcomes reported in the literature. At NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, we have carefully evaluated and treated patients with these injuries and continue to seek improvement in their outcomes.

“Functional results seem to hold for a decade after injury despite radiographic progression of joint degeneration. These results give surgeons more information to educate patients they treat who have sustained this type of injury.

“Although common injuries, ankle fractures can be debilitating and are not without complications. We continue to evolve in our thinking about these injuries, so surgeons should not be set in the ways they were trained in.”