The management of acute tibio-fibular syndesmotic injuries: an expert survey of AO Trauma Italy members and evidence-based treatment recommendations

Ankle fractures are common and recurring lesion, representing 10.2% of all fractures. It is reported that syndesmosis injury occurs in 10-13% of ankle trauma and 20% requiring internal fixation. Nowadays the restoration of syndesmosis has several unresolved issues. In order to investigate the trend about the choice of the correct surgical procedure and the management of this type of injuries, AO Trauma Italy group developed a survey based on the current literature; 282 surgeons of varying experience answered questions and the results from the questionnaire were compared to the data extracted from literature research on three different databases using 2 keywords (Ankle fractures and Syndesmotic injury).