The Wait Time for Surgery Following Injury Affects Functional Outcomes and Complications After an Ankle Fracture: A Propensity Score-Matched Multicenter Study, the TRON Study.

BACKGROUND

The present study aimed to evaluate the hypothesis that a 1-week extension of the waiting period to perform surgery for ankle fracture might affect postoperative results and complications.

METHODS

We used our multicenter database named TRON (Trauma Research Group of Nagoya). In all, 779 patients who underwent surgery for ankle fracture, who had no comorbidities were eligible. After exclusion, we analyzed 596 patients. We divided the patients into 2 groups according to whether they were operated on within 7 days after the injury with propensity score matching.

RESULTS

The operative time of the delayed operation group (DO group) was significantly longer than that of the early operation group (EO group) (115.87 ± 56.59 vs 85.93 ± 34.58 minutes; P < .001). The rate of infection in the DO group was significantly higher than that of the EO group (16 patients [6.5%] vs 4 patients [1.6%]; P = .016).

CONCLUSION

Waiting for more than a week to perform ankle surgery may lead to longer operative times and increased infection rates.

LEVELS OF EVIDENCE: III.