Fracture of the talus are relatively uncommon injury, when they occur, however, they are of major importance, because of the relativily heigh frequency of complications and long term disability. Complications such as non-union, avascular necmsis, traumatic arthritis are frequently developed as a late sequele in fracture or fracture-dislocation of the talus because of talar surface is covered mainly with articular ratilage and poor blood supply. Authors have reviewed 19 cases of the talus fracture & fracture-dislocation surgically treated at Soonchunhyang University Kumi Hospital from January 1987 to October 1995 with minimal 1 year follow up period.
The result were as follows
1. Of 19 cases, 16 male and 3 female with their average age of 29.8 years.
2. The rause of injury were traffic accident(motor veiheicle accident)-lO/l9 cases (53%), direct trauma-2/l9 cases(11%), sport injury-l/l9 cases(5%) and fall from height-6/l9 cases(32%).
3. The most common concomittant injury was the ipsilateral fracture of the tibiofibular (including medial malleolar fracture)-9/19 cases(47%).
4. According to the hawkinsclassification, 5 cases in type I, 8 cases in type II, 5 cases in type III and 3 cases in type IV.
5. According to the Hawkinstherapeutic criteria, excellent results in 8 cases, good in 1 cases, fair in 3 cases but poor in 1 case.
6. Avascular necrosis was occured in 7 cases(37%) and ankle stiffness in 4 cases(21%) but nonunion was not observed.