Broken Ankle

Your healthcare provider has several tests they use to diagnose ankle fractures and determine the extent of your injury. Tests your provider might use to examine your fracture can include:

• Physical examination.
• X-ray.
• Computed tomography (CT) scan.
• Magnetic resonance imagery (MRI).
• Bone scan.

Are there different types of ankle fractures?

There are several types of ankle fractures affecting different parts of your ankle. Ankles are complicated. They’re made up of three bones and four ligaments, each doing a different job to keep your ankle in good working order. Here are the different types of ankle fractures:

• Lateral malleolus fractures: This injury can happen when you break the bony knob on the outside of your ankle. This is the most common type of ankle fracture.
• Medial malleolus fractures: This fracture happens when you break the bony knob on the inside of your ankle.
• Bimalleolar ankle fracture: This fracture happens when you break both bony knobs on your ankle. This is the second most common type of ankle fracture.
• Bimalleolar equivalent fracture: This fracture happens when you break both bony knobs on the outside of your ankle and you damage ligaments inside your ankle.
• Posterior malleolus fracture: There’s a bony section on the back of your tibia. This is your posterior malleolus.
• Trimalleolar fracture: In this case, all three parts of your ankle are broken.
• Pilon fracture: Your tibia ends in a section called the roof of your ankle. When you break this section, it’s called a Pilon fracture.
• Maisonneuve fracture: This fracture happens when you sprain your ankle and break the upper part of your fibula, near your knee.
• Syndesmotic injury: The syndesmosis joint is located between your fibula and tibia (shinbone) and anchored by ligaments. A syndesmotic injury happens when you have at least one fracture in your tibia or fibula and you sprain ligaments in your syndesmotic joint.

What is the difference between a stress fracture and a bone fracture?

When you’ve hurt your ankle, it can be hard to tell if you have a stress fracture or a bone fracture.

A stress fracture is a tiny crack in your bone. Generally speaking, you have a stress fracture if the pain in your ankle gets worse over time. A bone fracture is when a fracture changes the shape of your bone.