Ankle Syndesmotic Injury

Gwak, Heui Chul; Kwon, Young wook

Abstract

Ankle injuries may involve the distal tibiofibular syndesmosis and can be associated with a variable degree of trauma to the soft tissue and osseous structures that play an important role in ankle joint stability. Ankle syndesmotic injury may occur solely as a soft tissue injury or in association with variable ankle fractures. Ankle syndesmotic injury does not necessarily lead to ankle instability; however, the coexistence of deltoid ligament injury critically destabilizes the ankle joint. The prevalence of these injuries may be higher than previously reported. The diagnosis of syndesmotic injury as not always easy because isolated ankle sprains may be missed in the absence of a frank diastasis and syndesmotic instability may be unnoticed in the presence of bimalleolar ankle fractures. Controversies arise at almost every phase of treatment includings : type of fixation(screw size, type of implant), number of cortices required for fixation and of need for hardware removal. Regardless of controversies, the most important goal should be restore and maintain the normal tibiofibular relationship to allow for healing of the ligamentous structures of the syndesmosis.