Conservative treatment of closed subtalar dislocation: a case report and 2 years follow-up

We report a case of a closed subtalar dislocation without any related fractures treated with closed reduction and conservative treatment with a cast immobilization. Pure subtalar dislocation without any fractures is extremely rare and hardly reported in the literature. Such injuries are more likely to be open and associated with fractures of the surrounding foot bones such as malleoli, talus or fifth metatarsal fractures. In the examined case, closed reduction was followed by cast immobilization for 3 weeks. Six months post-injury, the patient had a full range of motion without any pain while there were no signs of residual instability or early post-traumatic osteoarthritis. Subjective clinical testing using a valid health instrument revealed an excellent outcome. We discuss in details the mechanism of such an injury and highlight the importance of prompt closed reduction and early mobilization to ensure a satisfactory long term outcome.