Plain X-ray is insufficient for correct diagnosis of tibial shaft spiral fractures: a prospective trial

Purpose Tibial shaft spiral fractures and fractures of the distal third of the tibia (AO:42A/B/C and 43A) frequently occur with non-displaced posterior malleolus fractures (PM). This study investigated the hypothesis that plain X-ray is not sufficient for a reliable diagnosis of associated non-displ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of trauma and emergency surgery (Munich : 2007) 2023-12, Vol.49 (6), p.2339-2345
Main Authors: Lisitano, Leonard, Röttinger, Timon, Wiedl, Andreas, Rau, Kim, Helling, Sönke, Cifuentes, Jairo, Jehs, Bertram, Härting, Mark, Feitelson, Laura-Marie, Gleich, Johannes, Kiesl, Sophia, Pfeufer, Daniel, Neuerburg, Carl, Mayr, Edgar, Förch, Stefan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ankle Fractures - diagnostic imaging
Ankle Fractures - surgery
Critical Care Medicine
Emergency Medicine
Fractures
Hip joint
Humans
Intensive
Medical diagnosis
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Original
Original Article
Orthopedics
Prospective Studies
Reproducibility of Results
Sports Medicine
Surgery
Surgical Orthopedics
Tibia
Tibial Fractures - surgery
Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods
Traumatic Surgery
X-Rays
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Purpose Tibial shaft spiral fractures and fractures of the distal third of the tibia (AO:42A/B/C and 43A) frequently occur with non-displaced posterior malleolus fractures (PM). This study investigated the hypothesis that plain X-ray is not sufficient for a reliable diagnosis of associated non-displaced PM fractures in tibial shaft spiral fractures. Methods 50 X-rays showing 42A/B/C and 43A fractures were evaluated by two groups of physicians, each group was comprised of a resident and a fellowship-trained traumatologist or radiologist. Each group was tasked to make a diagnosis and/or suggest if further imaging was needed. One group was primed with the incidence of PM fractures and asked to explicitly assess the PM. Results Overall, 9.13/25 (SD ± 5.77) PM fractures were diagnosed on X-ray. If the posterior malleolus fracture was named or a CT was requested, the fracture was considered “detected”. With this in mind, 14.8 ± 5.95 posterior malleolus fractures were detected. Significantly more fractures were diagnosed/detected (14 vs. 4.25/25; p  
ISSN:1863-9933
1863-9941
DOI:10.1007/s00068-023-02285-x