Comparison of three plate system for lateral malleolar fixation

BACKGROUND: This study was to compare clinical and radiographic outcomes with three different implants and evaluate the effectiveness of minimally invasive plate osteosynthesis (MIPO) technique for the distal fibular fractures. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort single-surgical team single-facility study between 2000 and 2011. 147 patients receiving surgical interventions for closed, displaced distal fibular fractures were included. Based on the different implants, patients were divided into three groups: Group A: one-third tubular plate; Group B: locking compression (LCP) metaphyseal plate; Group C: LCP distal fibula plate. Clinical and radiographic outcomes were compared among the three groups. RESULTS: Totally, we found that patients in Group C had significant higher functional scores than those in Group A (p1 = 0.004; p2 = 0.002) (p1 stands for the p value for Olerud & Molandar Score, p2 stands for the p value for American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society score). The healing time was significant less in Group C than that in Group A (p < 0.0001) and Group B (p < 0.0001). Subgroup analysis showed that: (1) For Weber A fracture, the functional scores of the Group C were higher than those in Group A (p1 = 0.020; p2 = 0.029) and B (p1 = 0.020; p2 = 0.034). (2) For Weber B fracture, the functional scores of the Group B (p1 = 0.033; p2 = 0.030) and C (p1 = 0.027; p2 = 0.017) were higher than those in Group A. No significant differences were observed in terms of the ankle range of motion, reduction accuracy and complication rate. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated using LCP metaphyseal plate in patients associated with lateral malleolar fracture could achieve significantly better OMS & AOFAS scores and less healing time than using one-third tubular plate. Specifically, For Weber A fracture, LCP distal fibula plate is much better than one-third tubular plate and LCP metaphyseal plate. While for Weber B fracture, LCP distal fibula plate and LCP metaphyseal plate are better than one-third tubular plate. As to the complications, using MIPO technique in patients with distal fibular fractures is at least comparable to the traditional one. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-360) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.