ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2003 October;162(5):121-3

Copyright © 2003 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Ankle fracture diagnosis before X-Ray using Ottawa rules

Guglielmi V. ¹, Noviello M. R. ², Guerra V. ³, Tutino M. ⁴

¹ Servizio Pronto Soccorso, IRCCS «S. de Bellis», Castellana Grotte (BA); ² Servizio di Radiologia, IRCCS «S. de Bellis», Castellana Grotte (BA); ³ Laboratorio di Epidemiologia, IRCCS «S. de Bellis», Castellana Grotte (BA); ⁴ Centro Elaborazione Dati, IRCCS «S. de Bellis», Castellana Grotte (BA)

Aim. It is not infrequent to have to treat patients with ankle injuries. Fractures, however, are only found in 15-20% of such cases, so X-ray is often pointless not to say damaging. A study by Dr. Stiell has set out the so-called Ottawa rules to help the physician to suspect ankle fracture prior to X-ray. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, in our Emergency Department experience, X-rays could have been avoided by applying the Ottawa rules.
Methods. Over a period of about 15 months we examined 48 patients suffering from acute ankle injuries. All were given X-rays.
Results. Thirteen patients responded positively to the Ottawa rules and in 11 of them a fracture was in fact encountered. The remaining 35 did not respond to the Ottawa rules and did not present a fracture.
Conclusion. Our experience leads us to believe that the Ottawa rules are a useful instrument for excluding ankle fracture before carrying out X-ray.