Radiology, Vol 173, 347-349, Copyright © 1989 by Radiological Society of North America
Injuries of the lateral ankle ligaments: classification with tenography and arthrography
RP Bleichrodt, LM Kingma, B Binnendijk and JP Klein
Department of Surgery, University Hospital Groningen, The Netherlands.
To assess the value of tenography of the peroneal tendon sheaths and of
arthrography of the tibiotalar joint for the diagnosis and classification
of recent ruptures of the lateral ankle ligaments, the authors performed a
prospective study on 108 patients with inversion trauma of the ankle. All
patients underwent tenography. Arthrography was performed if results of
tenography were negative. All patients with positive tenographic or
arthrographic results underwent surgery. Tenography proved to be reliable
in the diagnosis of injuries of the calcaneofibular ligament (sensitivity,
88%; specificity, 87%-94%). The positive predictive value of tenography in
combination with arthrography was 100% for the diagnosis of lateral
ligament ruptures. The authors conclude that a combination of arthrography
and tenography is a reliable method for diagnosing recent ruptures of the
lateral ankle ligaments and for differentiating between isolated ruptures
of the talofibular ligament and combined lesions of both the talofibular
and the calcaneofibular ligaments.
