Fixation of ankle fractures: power-driven staples compared with a routine method, a 3-year follow-up study.

A new method of internal fixation of ankle fractures with power-driven staples is presented. The results in 25 ankle fractures treated with this method were compared with those of 25 matched ankle fractures treated with Wiberg staples, cerclage, and Palmer pins. Reduction was exact in 22 fractures in the stapled group and in 23 in the routine group; all the fractures healed within 6 weeks. The only difference between the two groups was a gain of 20 min in operating time when using the power-driven staples (p less than 0.01). At follow-up observation 3 years later, no additional significant subjective, objective, or radiological differences appeared.