Efficacy and safety of anterolateral approach L locking plate in the treatment of comminuted Pilon fractures

Objective To study the efficacy and safety of anterolateral approach L locking plate in the treatment of comminuted Pilon fractures. Methods 48 cases of comminuted Pilon fractures treated in department of orthopedics of our hospital from June 2015 to August 2016 were randomly divided into control group and observation group, 24 cases in each group. The control group was treated with distal tibial anatomical plate, while the observation group was treated with anterolateral distal tibial L locking plate. The perioperative indexes, postoperative functional evaluation indexes, and the incidence of complications were compared. Results The perioperative indexes [operation time (63.74±5.89) min, the amount of bleeding during operation (114.80±13.54) ml, hospitalization time (15.48±5.26) d, the healing time (12.63±4.96) w] and the incidence of complications (12.50%) of the observation group were significantly lower than those of the control group, the excellent rate of the function (91.67%) was significantly higher than that of the control group, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). Conclusion Anterolateral L locking plate in the treatment of comminuted Pilon fractures, has good postoperative fracture reduction and curative effect, low incidence of complications. Key words: Anterolateral approach; L type locking plate; Comminuted Pilon fractures; Efficacy; Safety