Intraoperative Assessment of Reduction of the Ankle Syndesmosis.

Although numerical criteria are commonly used to assess syndesmotic reduction, anatomical variation in the healthy population frequently exceeds proposed cutoffs. Patient-specific uninjured anatomy can be defined by comparing to the uninjured contralateral ankle; however, side-to-side variation is present for many anatomical relationships. Advanced imaging (e.g., lateral radiographs, 3-dimensional radiography) can influence intraoperative surgeon decision-making and improve syndesmosis reduction, but minute improvements in syndesmosis reduction may not outweigh increased operating time and costs. Intraoperative imaging is an adjunct, not a replacement for direct visualization or palpation when reducing the syndesmosis. Arthroscopy may benefit younger patients with high physical demands by improving identification of intra-articular pathology absent on MRI. Although anatomical reduction is important to restore pre-injury biomechanics, it is unclear whether differences in reduction quality influence patient-reported outcomes. In the absence of a gold standard, awareness of the options for intraoperative assessment of the syndesmosis and their respective accuracy and limitations reported herein could enhance surgeons' ability to intraoperatively reduce the syndesmosis with the tools currently available.