Incidence of Chondral Lesions of Talar Dome in Ankle Fracture Types

Background: Although the surgical treatment of ankle fractures is well known, a paucity of literature exists correlating chondral lesions with ankle fracture types. Materials and Methods: This study is a retrospective review of patients with absence or presence of chondral lesions that underwent arthroscopically assisted open reduction and internal fixation between June 2002 and April 2005. There were 38 female and 48 male patients (mean age, 41.4 years; mean followup, 33.9 months), and all had an Ankle-Hindfoot Scale score. The relationship between fracture types and presence of lesions was evaluated. Results: Four of 27 fractures with chondral lesions consisted of the bimalleolar type, 6 of 15 fractures with chondral lesions consisted of the trimalleolar type, and 14 of 20 distal fibula fractures had chondral lesions. There was significant greater incidence of chondral lesions associated with distal fibula fractures. The mean AOFAS score was 95.6 among all fractures. Conclusion: There is clear evidence that despite anatomic reduction, postoperative results of ankle fracture repair are not free of complications. We believe inspection of the talar dome should be routinely considered in the surgical repair ankle fractures.