by AceMedEd

Teach card · keep it in your scrub pocket

Ankle fracture

Ask during the case

  1. Positioning and the first fluoroscopy shot: "How do we get a true mortise view, and which three lines will you check on it?"
  2. Reducing the fibula: "How will the mortise tell us the fibula is out to length and correctly rotated?"
  3. Medial side and syndesmosis stress test: "What should the medial clear space and the tibiofibular clear space do when we stress the ankle?"

Point at: the medial clear space and the tibiofibular overlap on the fluoroscopy screen, while they say what each should look like.

End of day: "Draw me a mortise view and put in your lines." Two minutes, no notes.

Where this kit and your technique differ, yours wins.

Send this to your students

The night before. They prep alone, redraw at turnover, and get a cold check tomorrow morning. They won't see these questions.

Open the student page

Reviewed by Mehdi “AC” Talle, D.O., November 2026. Sources: Netter, Gray's Anatomy and Hoppenfeld's surgical exposures, with Rockwood and Green for fractures. Teaching schematic, not to scale; anatomy and technique vary. Management and indications are left to you on purpose.