Triplane fracture of the distal tibial epiphysis. Long-term follow-up

The cases of twenty-three patients in whom a triplane fracture had been treated at the Naval Hospital, Oakland, California, between 1974 and 1985, were reviewed. The anatomical configuration of the fracture was confirmed in fifteen patients. Eleven of the fifteen patients had a three-fragment fracture. Plain radiographs alone did not accurately demonstrate the configuration of the fracture. Twenty patients were asymptomatic when they were evaluated eighteen to thirty-six months after the injury, but only eight of fifteen patients were asymptomatic when they were evaluated thirty-eight months to thirteen years after the fracture. Residual displacement of two millimeters or more after reduction was associated with a less than optimum result unless the epiphyseal fracture was outside the primary weight-bearing area of the ankle.