The Use of Intravenous Dexamethasone in Preventing Severe Ankle Oedema to Reduce Hospitalisation Length of Patients with Dislocated Ankle Fracture

Abstract Purpose To investigate if the use of intravenous dexamethasone prior to surgery is effective in reducing hospitalisation time for patients with ankle oedema. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted on consecutive patients with a fresh ankle dislocated fracture. Indications for starting treatment with dexamethasone 8 mg was single blinded for patients randomly selected. A total of 62 patients were included of which 39 were females and 23 males with an age range of 20–86 years (mean 53.6). Patients who were not treated with dexamethasone were designated to a control group. Treatment with dexamethasone was started soon after admission for a maximum period of three days. Subsequently, the period of hospital stay was calculated. Results 30 patients received dexamethasone intravenous every 6 h and 32 patients were placebo, included in this study. Average hospitalisation time with dislocated ankle fracture before operation with dexamethasone treatment was reduced from 6.5 to 3 days using the U Mann–Whitney test/ two –tailed test (U = 627.500, p = 0.033). Standard deviation for Hospitalisation time before operation in the DEXA group was 2.490 while, the placebo group was 5.067, which was statistically significant. None of the patients treated with dexamethasone developed wound infection. Conclusion The use of intravenous dexamethasone prior to dislocated ankle fracture surgery can significantly reduce oedema, wound infection and hospitalisation period.