The cases of twenty-three patients in whom a triplane fracture had been
treated at the Naval Hospital, Oakland, California, between 1974 and 1985,
were reviewed. The anatomical configuration of the fracture was confirmed
in fifteen patients. Eleven of the fifteen patients had a three-fragment
fracture. Plain radiographs alone did not accurately demonstrate the
configuration of the fracture. Twenty patients were asymptomatic when they
were evaluated eighteen to thirty-six months after the injury, but only
eight of fifteen patients were asymptomatic when they were evaluated
thirty-eight months to thirteen years after the fracture. Residual
displacement of two millimeters or more after reduction was associated with
a less than optimum result unless the epiphyseal fracture was outside the
primary weight-bearing area of the ankle.