Background:

Removal of the syndesmotic screw is a currently-disputed procedure. Most of the publications that promote avoid this procedure considered that the rate of complications is high. The aim of this work was to determine the rate of complications related to the removal of the syndesmotic screw to learn about the safety and compare the results with the international literature.

Material and methods:

A descriptive, observational, retrospective and cross-sectional study in which took a sample of all cases operated of removal of the syndesmotic screw at our hospital from February 2015 January 2016 for the prevalence of the complications associated with this procedure. The statistical analysis was descriptive.

Results:

A total of 207 patients were studied. Five patients with complications were observed (2.41%). Two cases with wound dehiscence, two cases with superficial infection (1.92%), and a case with subsequent diastasis of the syndesmosis, with pain associated to instability (0.48%) which required revision surgery.

Conclusions:

In the sample of our hospital, the prevalence of complications related to the syndesmotic screw removal was less than that reported in the literature so far; Thus we could say that is a safe procedure, with low risk for infection and post-traumatic instability of the ankle.