EVALUATION OF FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME OF EXTRA-ARTICULAR LOWER THIRD TIBIA-FIBULA FRACTURES, WITH CONCOMITANT FIBULA FIXATION BY NAILING AND PLATTING A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

The lower third of the tibia is devoid of muscular support, it has more chances of rotatory malalignment and valgus/varus mispositioning. Studies suggests that the bula fracture should be xed to maintain axial alignment Fibula can be xed by closed nailing or ORIF with plate xation. We conducted study to evaluate functional outcome and complication of Extra-articular lower third tibia-bula fractures with concomitant bular xation. The study includes skeletally mature patients with Extra-articular lower third tibia-bula fractures who underwent concomitant bular xation. The functional outcome and complication were evaluated by the "Ankle Evaluation Rating System” by Merchant and Deitz.. Patients were clinically and radiologically followed up at 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. In this study, total 53 patients were chosen divided into 2 groups i.e., Group A and Group B, group A comprising 26 patients and Group B with 27 patients. Patients of Group A were treated with ORIF plating and patients of Group B were treated with CRIF and Nailing. The nal outcome of the 2 groups was evaluated using the “Johner & Wruch'sCriteria” and expressed as Excellent in the majority of cases. This was 65.38% in Group A and 37.04% in Group B . In Group A, 7 patients out of 26 were infected (26.92%). 6 patients had supercial infections and one patient had deep infections. Group B 2 patients out of 27 were infected(7.40%). This analysis suggests that the incidence of infection in Group B is signicantly lower than that in Group A. The data in our study indicate that both plating and nailing of the Fibula offer good stabilization of the Tibia. The incidence of infection is signicantly high following ORIF and plate xation of Fibula, most cases have a supercial infection. This seems to be because of the increased morbidity of soft tissue to open procedures after a high-velocity trauma.