Fig. 1

Patient flowchart. *Patients with primary diagnoses of fractures of the lower end of tibia (S823; n = 49,478), fibular alone (S824; n = 32,609), and lower leg part unspecified (S829; n = 730) were not considered for this analysis as codes were not sufficiently specific. ** 1560 intramedullary, 6941 extramedullary, 500 internal (unspecified), and 112 external fixations occurred during planned readmissions in patients who had no surgical fixation on their index admissions