A 32-year-old female presents to the emergency department with right foot pain after rolling her ankle during dance class. On exam, there is mild swelling and tenderness over the 5th metatarsal. The above x-ray was obtained (Figure 1: Case courtesy of Dr. Henry Knipe, Radiopaedia.org, rID: 28104).
Resources & References:
Check out ALiEM’s Paucis Verbis cards to brush up on other can’t miss orthopedic injuries, and SplintER Series or EMrad for more cases.
- Schwagten K, Gill J, Thorisdottir V. Epidemiology of dancers fracture. Foot and Ankle Surgery. 2021;27(6):677-680. PMID: 33229215.
- Smidt KP, Massey P. 5th Metatarsal Fracture. In: StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing; 2022. Accessed September 17, 2022. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK544369/
- Morgan C, Abbasian A. Management of spiral diaphyseal fractures of the fifth metatarsal: A case series and a review of literature. Foot (Edinb). 2020;43:101654. PMID: 32086137.