[Frontal talus cleft--talus bipartitus].

To our knowledge, only three patients with a frontal split of the talus have been reported so far. We report on a sixteen year old patient who had some discomfort and restriction of movement in the ankle joint. X-ray examination showed an articular link between the ankle and subtalar joint. As regards the etiology, trauma, avascular necrosis, accessory bones and abnormal ossification were not evident. With respect to the phylogenesis of the foot skeleton, the frontal split of the talus may represent an atavistic malformation of the human foot. This is in contrast to the current hypothesis of a duplicated ossification in the talus.