Treatment of individuals having supination-adduction type II (SAD-II) ankle fractures with the medial pilon fracture concept exhibited better postsurgery outcomes when compared to the treatment as per the ankle fracture concept, revealed a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders.

Researchers undertook this comparative study to investigate efficacy of treatment of Lauge-Hansen SAD-II fractures with the pilon fracture concept and ankle fracture concept. The clinical data of 67 people with SAD-II ankle fractures were retrospectively evaluated in this retrospective cohort study. Participants underwent surgical therapy and were segregated into two cohorts according to the surgical concept used: (a) 43 people were incorporated in the ankle fracture surgical concept cohort, and (b) 24 people were incorporated in the medial pilon fracture surgical concept cohort.

The therapy effect was assessed on the basis of American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hindfoot score, Burwell-Charnley radiological reduction standard, and postsurgery visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score one year following operation. All 67 participants were followed up. Notably, 24 people were managed as per the medial pilon fracture concept, and 43 people were treated as per the ankle fracture concept.

The AOFAS score one year following surgery in medial pilon cohort was greater when compared to ankle fracture cohort. Compared to the ankle fracture group, the medial pilon group exhibited a higher AOFAS score and considerably better VAS score one year after surgery, as illustrated in Table 1:

Thus, understanding SAD-II fractures and choosing the therapeutic plan according to appropriate treatment concepts have high clinical significance.