Abstract
Purpose
A fracture of the posterior talar process is easily missed because of its hidden position. Inappropriate treatment is likely to result in complications, such as nonunion of the fracture and traumatic arthritis. This study evaluated the outcomes of arthroscopy-assisted reduction combined with robotic-assisted screw placement in the treatment of fractures of the posterior talar process.
Methods
The clinical data for nine patients who underwent surgical treatment of a fracture of the posterior talar process at our institution between September 2017 and January 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Arthroscopy-assisted reduction of the fracture was performed, and a cannulated screw was placed using three-dimensional orthopedic robotic-assisted navigation.
Results
The patients (seven men, two women) had a mean age of 36.33 ± 9.77 years and were followed up for 21 ± 5.43 months. The operation time was 106.67 ± 24.5 min with blood loss of 47.78 ± 9.05 ml. Primary healing was obtained in all cases, and no patient sustained a nerve or tendon injury, had fracture nonunion, or developed talar osteonecrosis. One patient developed subtalar arthritis, for which subtalar joint fusion was performed; pain was markedly less severe after cleaning.
Conclusion
Arthroscopy-assisted reduction and robotic-assisted screw placement have the advantages of visualization of fracture reduction, minimal injury, and precise screw placement in the treatment of fractures of the posterior talar process.
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Data availability
Data will be made available by the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by MX, RL, GC, XZ, DW, and GC. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MX and RL. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Mingliang Xu and Renlong Li contributed equally to this work.
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Xu, M., Li, R., Chen, G. et al. Arthroscopy-assisted reduction and simultaneous robotic-assisted screw placement in the treatment of fractures of the posterior talar process. International Orthopaedics (SICOT) 48, 573–580 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-023-06006-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00264-023-06006-2