Efficacy of arthroscopic internal fixation with countersunk screw in the treatment of talus fracture

Abstract

Objective: To explore clinical effects of arthroscopic internal fixation with countersunk screw in the treatment of talus fracture. Methods: Forty-eight patients with talus fracture treated in hospital of Chengde Medical University from February 2015 to December 2019 were enrolled for present investigation. The patients with talus fracture were randomly assigned into two groups, with twenty-four patients per group. The patients with talus fracture in the observation group were treated with arthroscopic internal fixation with countersunk screw, while the traditional open reduction and internal fixation were applied for the ones in control group. The clinical efficacy of the patients was evaluated three months after the operation, and the preoperative and postoperative ankle joint functions, fracture-healing time, hospital stay, and complications were carefully compared between observation and control group. Results: A total efficiency as high as 91.67% was showed in observation group, which is distinctly better than the effective rate of control group (66.67%, P<0.05). Before operation, ankle function scores (AOFAS) of control group and observation group is 42.08 ± 4.29 and 41.75±5.31 with no significantly difference (P>0.05); while after the surgery, AOFAS scores of control group is significantly lower than that of observation group: (66.28±7.51 vs. 53.0 ±6.79, P<0.05). Moreover, healing time and hospitalized duration of observation group are 3.19±1.04 months and 3.57±0.97 days, which are also significantly shorter than 4.18±1.25 months and 8.28±2.54 days in control group, respectively, (P < 0.05). And the total complication rate in control group is 20.83%, which is higher than 8.33% in observation group (P >0.05). Conclusion: Arthroscopic internal fixation with countersunk screw can significantly improve the efficacy and ankle joint functions, shorten the fracture-healing time and hospital stays without increasing the incidence of complications. Keywords: Arthroscopy; countersunk screw; curative effect; internal fixation; talar fracture.