Malleolar fractures can be defined as the injury of malleoli and/or ligaments. Malleoli or malleolus can be defined as the bony projection, especially the area present on both sides of the ankle. When someone suffers a malleolar fracture, swelling and extreme pain are the two most common symptoms that could be seen. Besides this, the patient could also experience bone deformity around the ankle, bony tenderness, and hematoma.

Our goal of this post is to help you know about different kinds of malleolar fractures. The reason why there is such classification is that you never know which part of the bone breaks during fracture and to what extent. Considering this, malleolar fractures are classified into different types.

Types of Malleolar Fractures

Identifying the correct type of malleolar fracture by the orthopedist is very important to decide the correct treatment procedure. Considering this will help orthopedists decide whether surgical treatment is required or the fracture can be fixed without surgery.

Malleolar fractures are categorized into 5 types:

• Chip fractures
• Transverse fractures
• Oblique fractures
• Vertical fractures
• Comminuted fractures

Let us now see each one individually.

Chip Fractures

Can be called an avulsion fracture, chip fracture occurs when the ligament present on the inner side of the ankle gets ruptured. Chip fractures or avulsion fractures are generally seen in children because, in adults, ligaments or tendons get injured first. But in the case of avulsion fractures, the chances of serious injuries become high. In chip fractures, ligament or tendon tears apart from the bone.

When we talk about the surgical procedure during such fractures, then they are preferred when broken bone fragments displace away from their normal position. During surgery, generally orthopedic implants plates and screws.

Transverse Fractures

Transverse fractures occur when the bone is fractured at a right angle of the bone’s long plane. In other words, we can say that when the fracture occurs in the same direction of the ankle joint line then it is classified as transverse fractures.

In case of surgery during such fractures, cannulated screws are used. To get top-class orthopedic screws, you can contact Siora Surgicals Pvt. Ltd. They offer Scrucan Cannulated Screws of international standard quality.

Oblique Fractures

Oblique fracture term is generally used for the fracture of a long bone where bone breaks occur at a plane oblique to the bone’s long axis. It is seen that in the case of oblique medial malleolar fracture, the ankle bone gets displaced. Thus, surgery is indicated using orthopedic screws and wires.  

Vertical Fractures

Vertical fractures generally occur when the force applied to leg bone is more. It is seen that vertical fractures can also extend to the weight-bearing part of the ankle bone.

When it comes to the surgical fixation of vertical fractures, locking plates and screws are preferred by orthopedists.

Comminuted Fractures

As the name suggests, a comminuted fracture is a condition when the bone breaks into several small pieces. Such fractures occur during a high-energy collision with an automobile or when something heavy falls on the bone.

Comminuted fractures are known to be one of the hardest to fix. Fixation of comminuted fractures requires the use of special orthopedic plates and bone screws of different sizes.

The Bottom Line

The decision on whether surgery is required or not in case of malleolar fractures will be taken by the orthopedist. Besides this, the type of orthopedic implant required for fracture fixation will also be decided by the surgeon based on the extent of injury and type of fracture.

We hope that the types of malleolar fractures must have been clear to you after going through this post. We’ll be glad to receive your feedback on this. 

To get top quality orthopedic implants, you can contact Siora Surgicals Pvt. Ltd. The company is also open to become an orthopedic implants supplier in Poland.