J Korean Fract Soc.  2022 Apr;35(2):57-62. 10.12671/jkfs.2022.35.2.57.

Posterior Anti-Glide Plating for Supination External Rotation Type Lateral Malleolar Fractures: Clinical Comparison of Locking versus Non-Locking One-Third Semi-Tubular Plate Fixation

• Lee JY
• Cho YJ
• Cha DH
• Choi HB
• Lee JH

• KMID: 2529336
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12671/jkfs.2022.35.2.57

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the clinical and radiological outcomes between locking plates and non-locking plates using posterior anti-glide plating for supination external rotation type lateral malleolar fractures.
Materials and Methods
A total of 50 patients who underwent internal fixation of posterior anti-glide plating due to lateral malleolar fractures, classified as supination-external rotation (SER) as per the Lauge-Hansen classification system, at our hospital from January 2017 to November 2018 were retro-spectively evaluated. Patients were divided into two groups: 1/3 semi-tubular locking plate (24 patients) and 1/3 semi-tubular non-locking plate (26 patients). A radiographic assessment was performed after surgery to evaluate the time of bone union. The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hindfoot functional score was measured after the surgery to evaluate the clinical outcomes.
Results
The two groups showed similar distributions in sex, age, height, body mass index, fracture pattern, and mean follow-up period. Complete bone union was obtained in all cases and the mean bone union time was 13.00±3.38 weeks in Group 1 and 12.92±3.26 weeks in Group 2 (p=0.87). The mean AOFAS score at 24 weeks was 95.66±2.86 in Group 1 and 95.84±2.79 in Group 2 (p=0.82). The mean AOFAS score at 48 weeks was 97.25±3.54 in Group 1 and 96.57±3.07 in Group 2 (p=0.47). Two cases of complications were observed in the non-locking plate group.
Conclusion
For the treatment of Lauge-Hansen SER type lateral malleolar fracture, internal fixation us-ing locking 1/3 semi-tubular plate and non-locking 1/3 semi-tubular plate are both favorable fixation methods.

Keyword

Lateral malleolar fractures; Locking plate; Posterior anti-glide plating