Fracture of the ankle associated with rupture of the Achilles tendon: case report and review of the literature.

Abstract

A thirty-five-year-old man fell two meters from a ladder and sustained a closed fracture of the medial malleolus with an ipsilateral complete Achilles tendon rupture. The Achilles tendon rupture was diagnosed by means of the patient's complaints and physical findings. The ankle fracture was diagnosed incidentally on routine radiographs. Such a combination of injuries has been reported infrequently in the literature, and striking similarities have been described in the mechanism of injury and fracture pattern. Remarkably, in three of four reports the combined injury was initially misdiagnosed.