What to do if you have a fibula fracture? Here's how you should treat it

Fibula fractures are relatively rare in adults, but some accidents may lead to fibula fractures. Clinically, the most common fibula fracture is in children under ten years old, but parents do not need to worry, because fibula fractures are relatively easy to treat. So, what are the clinical symptoms of fibula fractures and what are the treatment methods?

Clinical manifestations

1. Symptoms

The injured limb is painful and has swelling, deformity, etc.

The tibia is superficial and the local symptoms are obvious. While paying attention to the symptoms of the fracture itself, we should also pay attention to the degree of soft tissue damage. Tibia and fibula fractures cause many local and systemic complications, and the consequences are often more serious than the fracture itself. Pay attention to whether there is damage to important blood vessels and nerves. When the upper end of the tibia is fractured, pay special attention to whether there is damage to the anterior tibial artery, posterior tibial artery and common peroneal nerve; also pay attention to the degree of swelling of the soft tissue of the lower leg and whether there is severe pain and other manifestations of the calf fascial compartment syndrome.

2. Physical signs

You should pay attention to the shape, length, circumference of the limb and the tension of the soft tissue of the entire calf; the temperature and color of the calf skin; the pulsation of the dorsalis pedis artery; whether there is pain when moving the toes, etc. In addition, you should also pay attention to whether there is foot drop, etc. Under normal circumstances, the inner edge of the toe, the inner malleolus and the inner edge of the patella should be on the same straight line. If the tibia and fibula fracture are displaced, this normal relationship will be lost.

treatment

1. Manual reduction and external fixation with small splint

Stable fractures (transverse fractures): manual reduction, external fixation with splints, and exercise.

2. Calcaneus traction reduction external fixation method

For unstable fractures (short bevel, comminuted, multiple fractures in one bone), use the above method and add calcaneal traction.

Open fracture: If the wound is slightly contaminated, it will become a closed fracture after thorough debridement and suture. It should be treated as an unstable fracture, but the splint should be put on slowly. If the wound is seriously contaminated or infected, the wound should be cleaned, slightly reduced to achieve functional alignment, and a plaster tube-shaped window dressing or an arch bridge splint should be used for external fixation.

Stable fractures with severe soft tissue contusion or severe fracture displacement should be combined with calcaneal traction even if anatomical reduction is achieved during reduction.