OBJECTIVE: to investigate the surgical methods in treating weber type C ankle injury and estimate the necessity of syndesmosis operative exploration. METHODS: forty three patients presenting weber type C ankle injury were treated with open reduction and internal fixation from october 2004 to december 2009. twenty nine patients were treated with routine procedure involving open reduction and internal fixation, syndesmosis exploration. additional repair was performed in the others. thirty four patients were followed during an average time of 31.2 months (range, 18 to 50 months), 22 patients of those were treated with routine procedures and 12 were treated with additional syndesmosis surgical exploration. RESULTS: all the fractures were united within the average time of 13.1 weeks (range, 10 to 18 weeks) and full weight bearing began. the mean ankle and hindfoot scale of the american orthopaedics foot and ankle society score was 79.86 (range, 65 to 98) in the routine procedures group and 86.67 (range, 78 to 100) in the syndesmosis exploration group. the values of olerud-molander score were 77.27 (range, 55 to 100) and 86.67 (range, 75 to 100), respectively. statistcally significant difference was found between the two groups (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: syndesmosis surgical exploration is essential in some weber type C ankle injuries, which make debridement and direct reduction of the syndesmosis possible, allowing higher stabilization of the ankle joint. Level of Evidence III, Retrospective Comparative Study.
Ankle injuries; Ankle injuries; Ligaments, articular
