Three-Dimensional Fluoroscopy Influence in Intraoperative Decision-Making Concerning Syndesmotic Reduction

CATEGORY: Ankle; Trauma INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: The use of intraoperative three-dimensional fluoroscopy to evaluate syndesmotic and articular reduction in ankle fractures is a relatively new tool demonstrating usefulness in the literature. It has been described that it can detect up to 32.7% of intraoperative malreduction. The objective of this prospective study is to observe if surgeons, when performing operative treatment in ankle fractures with three- dimensional fluoroscopy assistance, modify the syndesmotic reduction and/or fixation. The definitive syndesmotic reduction was assessed with bilateral ankle CT-scan postoperatively. METHODS: Sixteen patients with ankle fracture and syndesmotic instability were analyzed. After malleolar and syndesmotic fixation, intraoperative three-dimensional fluoroscopy was performed. The surgeon then analyzed cross-sectional images to evaluate the reduction of the fracture and syndesmosis. In this scenario, the surgeon decided whether to make any changes in the reduction of the syndesmosis or in the configuration of the fixation strategy. Postoperative bilateral computed tomography was carried out to corroborate in detail if there was any syndesmotic malreduction. RESULTS: Sixteen patients were included in this study (10 men) with a mean age of 40 years (range 25-60 years). 62% were supination-external rotation fractures according to Lauge-Hansen classification. Of all the patients evaluated, only 4 underwent any modification after performing intraoperative three-dimensional fluoroscopy. From the previous group, in 3 patients (19% of the total) there was a change in syndesmal reduction and in only one there was a change of any element of osteosynthesis. When evaluating syndesmal reduction with postoperative bilateral CT, there were 6 patients in the total group who presented syndesmal malreduction. In patients in whom a modification to syndesmal reduction was made, it persisted in 2 of the 3 cases. CONCLUSION: In our series, the use of intraoperative three-dimensional fluoroscopy did not motivate most surgeons to make changes in syndesmotic reduction, unlike other previously published studies. Even despite making changes in syndesmotic reduction, the percentage of patients who persists with poor reduction is considerable. In this study, the percentage of poor syndesmotic reductions was 32.7%. Despite being a figure that is within what is expected according to the literature, we consider that it is high even using intraoperative fluoroscopy as support.