Review Article
The Approach to Proximal Fifth Metatarsal Fractures in Athletes
| Ryan Churchill W1*, Thomas Sherman I1, Matthew Carpiniello2 and William F Postma1 | |
| 1Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, 3800 Reservoir Road NW Washington DC, USA | |
| 2Department of General Surgery, Mount Sinai St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center,10 Amsterdam Avenue, NY, USA | |
| *Corresponding Author : | Ryan Churchill Department of Orthopaedic Surgery MedStar Georgetown University Hospital 3800 Reservoir Road NW Washington DC 20007, USA Tel: 551-206-4922 Fax: 202-444-7455 E-mail: ryan.w.churchill@gmail.com |
| Received date: Dec 14, 2015; Accepted date: Feb 27, 2016; Published date: Mar 10, 2016 | |
| Citation: Ryan Churchill W, Sherman IT, Carpiniello M, Postma WF (2016) The Approach to Proximal Fifth Metatarsal Fractures in Athletes. Clin Res Foot Ankle 4:181. doi:10.4172/2329-910X.1000181 | |
| Copyright: © 2016 Ryan Churchill W, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
Fractures of the proximal fifth metatarsal are injuries that occur more frequently in the elite athlete population and have the potential to significantly impact the ability of the athlete to return to play if not treated appropriately. These fractures can be separated into three types: tuberosity fractures, Jones fractures and diaphyseal stress fractures. For the treating physician, a thorough understanding of the bony and vascular anatomy, mechanism of injury and treatment options are vital to provide the elite athlete with the optimal outcome. Most fractures of the can be treated non-surgically with a stiff soled shoe or controlled ankle motion boot with most athletes returning to play by 8 weeks. When treating the Jones fracture in the high level athlete the trend in the literature is towards screw placement for immediate fixation and subsequent faster return to play. This is also the case for diaphyseal stress fractures of the fifth metatarsal. This paper provides a critical review of the current literature with the author’s preferred method of treatment of these injuries in the elite athlete population to provide the orthopaedic surgeon with a basis for treatment of these injuries based on the most recent literature.
