Functional treatment of intra-articular fractures of the calcaneus

Fifty-one adult patients with 54 intra-articular fractures of the calcaneus have been reviewed from one to 11 years after the injury. Treatment consisted in immediate active exercises of the foot without any attempt at reduction or immobilization. The patients resumed full weight-bearing, on the average, three months after injury. The overall results were excellent in 19, good in 24 and unsatisfactory, objectively and subjectively, in 11 feet. In this consecutive series, the majority of the fractures had a marked degree of displacement. Excluding undisplaced fractures which had a good result, no clear cut relation between the type and degree of displacement and the final result could be found. However, there were more unsatisfactory results in fractures in which the tuber-joint angle was equal to or less than 10 degrees.