Trauma-induced spontaneous union of a talar osteochondritis dissecans: case report

We encountered a case of an 18-year-old woman with persisting ankle pain after a healed Weber-B fracture. Additional imaging through a computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a fully united fragmentous osteochondral lesion of the talus (OLT) (17 ​mm ​× ​9 ​mm ​× ​8 ​mm) of the right ankle—as opposed to a non-united OLT when the fracture was diagnosed 19 months prior to the presentation. Our proven hypothesis is that the fragmented OLT was non-symptomatic for many years, based on an osteochondritis dissecans. The ipsilateral ankle trauma induced a fresh fracture in the interface between the talus and the fragmented OLT, and consequently the destabilized fragmented OLT became symptomatic. The ankle trauma initiated fracture healing that resulted in a complete union of the OLT without clinical symptoms. The existing symptoms were established to be based on anterior osseous ankle impingement, due to the presence of osseous fragments in the medial gutter of the ankle joint. Therefore, a nettoyage of the medial gutter including a resection of the corpora libera from the medial gutter with the shaver was performed. Intraoperative macroscopic assessment of the medial osteochondritis dissecans was performed and showed union with completely intact hyaline cartilage at the level of the surrounding articular cartilage requiring no interventions. An increased range of motion was achieved. The patient recovered well with and experienced no more recognizable pain. In this article, the unstable fragmentous lesion of the patient reached spontaneous union within 19 months after destabilization. Although this is not common for an unstable fragmentous OLT, this could be a stepping stone toward an increased role of conservative treatment for fragmentary OLTs.