Fracture of the lateral process of the talus: a report of two cases.

Abstract

Fracture of the lateral process of the talus is a rare lesion commonly described in snowboarding injuries. Nevertheless, several conditions can lead to this injury, which is often misdiagnosed as a severe ankle sprain because of the difficulty in detecting it on standard radiographic views. Computed tomography is very helpful for the assessment of this injury. The type of treatment will depend on the size and degree of the displacement of the fracture. This injury can also lead to subtalar joint osteoarthritis. We report 2 cases of fracture of the lateral process of the talus. In the first case, a young male sustained a combined inversion and dorsiflexion strain of his right foot when he fell from a ladder. In the second case, a woman broke the lateral process of her right talus by the same mechanism when she was sledding. In the 2 situations, we opted for an open reduction and internal fixation using 2.4-mm cannulated screws. Both patients were allowed walking with partial weightbearing with a walker boot (VACOped(®)) for 6 weeks. At 1 year, both showed a consolidated fracture and had regained their preinjury level of activity.