What are the physical characteristics of the distal tibiofibular syndesmotic joint in uninjured patients?

Abstract

The syndesmosis is a crucial component for the ankle joint as any injury to it can immobilize a person. The ultimate goal of treatment is to restore the syndesmosis and ankle joint to their respective pre-injury, anatomic alignments. Few studies have attempted to characterize normal syndesmotic joints. Many of these studies have had certain limitations: small population size, minimal diversity in subject demographics, and very few raters taking part in data collection. The purpose of this study is to review a normal distal tibiofibular syndesmosis and characterize the parameters of an uninjured joint using both computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).