Treatment of displaced intra-articular fractures of the calcaneus using medial and lateral approaches, internal fixation, and early motion.

Twenty-two displaced intra-articular fractures of the calcaneus (in twenty-two patients) were treated by open reduction and internal fixation with a screw and one or two staples using a lateral and, when needed, a medial approach, followed by early motion. Despite the early motion, a nearly normal anatomical reduction was achieved and maintained in nineteen feet. After follow-up that ranged in duration from sixteen to seventy-two months, the clinical and radiographic result was rated as good in seventeen patients and fair in one, and there were four failures. Twenty-one of the twenty-two patients returned to work within six months. The average subtalar motion at follow-up was 75 per cent of normal.