Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep 30;7(3):24730114221127201.
doi: 10.1177/24730114221127201. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Complications and Functional Outcome Following Operative Treatment of Talus Neck and Body Fractures: A Systematic Review

Olivier Wijers  1 , Jelle J Posthuma  1 , Esmee W M Engelmann  1 , Tim Schepers  1
Affiliations

Complications and Functional Outcome Following Operative Treatment of Talus Neck and Body Fractures: A Systematic Review

Olivier Wijers et al. Foot Ankle Orthop. .

Abstract

Background: Central talar fractures are rare and often associated with impaired functional outcome. Despite recent advances in diagnosis and management of talus fractures, complications rates remain high and functional outcome is generally poor. This study aims to provide an overview of complication rates and functional outcome following operative treatment of talar neck and body fractures. This may help in clinical decision making by improving patients' expectation management and tailored treatment strategies.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted of studies published from January 2000 to July 2021 reporting functional outcome and/or complications following operative treatment of talar neck, body, or combined neck and body fractures. Keywords used were (Talar fracture) or (Talus fracture). Data on complication rates and functional outcome was extracted from selected articles.

Results: A total of 28 articles were included in our analysis reporting 1086 operative treated talar fractures (755 neck [70%], 227 body fractures [21%], and 104 combined body and neck fractures [9%]). The mean follow-up was 48 (range 4-192) months. Complications occurred frequently with; 6% surgical site infection, 8% nonunion, 29% avascular necrosis, 64% osteoarthritis, and in 16% a secondary arthrodesis was necessary. A wide variety in functional outcome was reported; however, there seems to be a correlation between fracture classification and postoperative complications.

Conclusion: Operative treatment of central talar fractures is associated with a high incidence of early and late complications and often leads to an impaired functional outcome. Standardization of talar fracture classification and scoring systems in combination with large sample-sized prospective studies are warranted to detect further predictive factors influencing tailormade treatment strategies and patient expectation management.

Level of evidence: Level III, Systematic review of case series and case-control studies.

Keywords: complications; functional outcome; talar body; talar fracture; talar neck.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethical Approval: Ethical approval was not sought for the present study because the systematic review consists of published papers that contained data sets with patients who were properly anonymized. Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. ICMJE forms for all authors are available online.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISM flowchart diagram of included articles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Abdelgaid SM, Ezzat FF. Percutaneous reduction and screw fixation of fracture neck talus. Foot Ankle Surg. 2012;18(4):219-228. doi:10.1016/j.fas.2012.01.003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Amin S, Achenbach SJ, Atkinson EJ, Khosla S, Melton LJ. Trends in fracture incidence: a population-based study over 20 years. J Bone Miner Res. 2014;29(3):581-589. doi:10.1002/jbmr.2072 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Annappa R, Jhamaria NL, Dinesh KVN, Devkant, Ramesh RH, Suresh PK. Functional and radiological outcomes of operative management of displaced talar neck fractures. Foot. 2015;25(3):127-130. doi:10.1016/j.foot.2015.03.004 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bastos LR, Ferreira RC, Mercadante MT. Analysis of clinical and functional outcome and complications of talar neck fractures. Res Bras Ortop. 2010;45(4):362-374. doi:10.1016/s2255-4971(15)30382-7 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bellamy JL, Hsu JR. Does a longer delay in fixation of talus fractures cause osteonecrosis? Return to Run Clinical Pathway View project Carolinas HealthCare System. J Surg Orthop Adv. Published online 2011. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51036580 - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources