A critical Analysis of Long-Term Result and Prognostic Factors of Fractures of the Calcaneus

Kim, Ig Gon; Kim, Jae Hyek; Kim, Chul Hyun; Kim, Jong Suck

Abstract

Forty-six patients who had had forty-nine calcaneal fractures were managed with closed reduction and a cast, closed reduction and axial pin fixation, and open reduction and internal fixation. The results were reviewed retrospectively, between twelve months and twenty-six months after the treatment, with criteria usued in assesssment of result by Salama30) and with plain radiographs. The purpose of this study were to analyze the relationship between the prognostic factors and post-treatment results. The results of treatment and prognostic factors obtained from this study were as follows. 1. The negative prognostic factors that were associated with an unsatisfactory out come were an age of more than fifty years, a greater body weight, work involving strenuous labor, subtalar incongruity, a decreased fibulocalcaneal space, and a decreased B hler-angle ratio of the fractured to the normal side. 2. Patients who had had a tongue-type fracture had a better result than those who had had a central depression fracture, while those who had had a central depression fracture had a better outcome than those who had had a comminuted fracture. 3. The length of the Achilles-tendon fulcrum, which is directly related to the calcaneal length, was not related to the outcome.