To Study the Outcome of Conservative Management of Closed Fracture of Base of Fifth Metatarsal in Adults

INTRODUCTION: Metatarsal fractures are amongst the most common foot injuries with an incidence of 67 per 100, 000 inhabitants and year1. Of all metatarsal fractures, those of the fifth metatarsal are the most common, contributing to upto 70 %1, Among them 80 % involves the proximal part of 5th metatarsal1. The majority of fifth metatarsal fractures are managed conservatively. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It was a cross-sectional, Hospital based study conducted in the Orthopaedics Department of Agartala Government Medical College And Govind Ballabh Pant hospital, Agartala from november 2017 to november 2019 in 115 patients of fracture base of fifth metatarsal, which were treated conservatively and evaluated using foot function index. RESULTS: In this study total 115 cases were included who matched inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were treated by conservative method and observed and follow up done till 6 months. Among this 47.8 % were male& 52.2 % were female patients CONCLUSION: conservative treatment leads to excellent clinical results for both, Lawrence and botte type I and type II acute fractures. As both fracture locations did not differ for outcome, they should not be delineated, but rather be summarized as epi-metaphyseal. Fracture displacement greater 2mm, intra-articular involvement did not affect the outcome. Diabetes Mellitus has significant effect in the functional outcome in this type of fracture compared to non-diabetic patients who were treated in similar fashion. Therefore, conservative treatment should be applied to all epi-metaphyseal fractures, even when displaced, intra-articular or comminuted.