1. Introduction
Pilon fractures are relatively rare, resulting in higher complication rates and poor clinical outcomes, particularly regarding walking impairments [
1,
2].
In clinical practice, various methods are used to stabilize pilon fractures. Treatment commonly involves open reduction and internal fixation. These fractures are primarily caused by high-energy trauma and are often associated with soft tissue injuries. Typically, pilon fractures require multiple surgeries for effective management, resulting in increased costs and prolonged recovery periods [
1,
3]. After sustaining a tibial pilon fracture, individuals may face long-term complications. This is especially true for comminuted intra-articular fractures resulting from high-energy trauma. Research has shown that patients with tibial pilon fractures score lower on health-related quality of life questionnaires compared to uninjured individuals of the same age, as well as people with chronic illnesses [
4].
In many cases, the function of the affected ankle is not fully restored, severely impacting the quality of life for those affected [
4,
5]. Patients who undergo surgery for this type of fracture report significant loss of ankle joint function and experience daily pain.
Most publications discuss treatment techniques for pilon fractures and evaluate their clinical and radiological outcomes. However, only a few studies assess functional outcomes, such as balance and ankle stability [
1,
3,
4].
Posttraumatic arthrosis frequently complicates tibial pilon fractures, and studies indicate that clinical outcomes can worsen over time. Injuries to soft tissues, prolonged immobilization, and extended periods of non-weight-bearing on the injured side due to tibial pilon fractures can result in muscle atrophy, decreased strength, and balance issues [
6,
7,
8].
Ankle fractures can lead to balance disturbances, significantly impacting walking and functional mobility [
8].
Postural balance involves maintaining a specific posture in response to external disturbances. Therefore, clinical assessments are essential for identifying particular issues that could lead to falls, injuries, and instability in the ankle joint [
9].
Postural balance tests serve as practical tools for monitoring ankle instability in patients [
10].
Postural control is assessed through static and dynamic balance tests conducted during bipodal and unipodal stance. These assessments can be performed objectively using force platforms [
11]. Utilizing center of pressure (CoP)-derived parameters for balance evaluation has proven effective in estimating fall risk and joint instability [
12]. These CoP parameters, which are quantified and analyzed through force platforms [
11], are considered a gold standard for measuring balance [
13].
To differentiate bipodal balance between patients and healthy individuals with their eyes open and closed, a range of CoP trajectory variables can be used, both in the time domain (such as mean velocity, distance, or area) and the frequency domain (including total power and median frequency). Notably, the mean CoP velocity has been shown to be the most effective measure for detecting changes and differences across eye conditions in the two groups [
12,
14].
Although the Single-Leg Balance test is widely used to predict functional ankle instability and assess the risk of sprains or falls [
15], there is a lack of studies focusing on specific CoP parameters for analyzing unipodal postural control using force platforms. Interestingly, the CoP mean velocity stands out as a reliable stabilometric measure for distinguishing patients with a history of ankle sprains from healthy individuals during single-leg balance tests with eyes closed [
15].
To maintain balance, the central nervous system integrates visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive information to generate motor commands that activate muscles in coordinated patterns [
16].
Ankle proprioception plays a crucial role in balance control. However, maintaining stability during a single-leg stance also depends on coordinated efforts from the hip, knee, and trunk muscles, along with psychological and contextual factors [
17,
18]. Both balance control and ankle proprioception are negatively related to injured ankles [
17]. The literature also reports a connection between ankle proprioception and the risk of ankle injury. Persistent, impaired ankle proprioception after an injury can lead to long-term declines in postural and balance control [
19].
Portable force plates can indirectly assess ankle proprioception through balance and sway analysis. Single-leg stance or eyes-closed balance tests on these plates can help infer ankle proprioception, as increased sway or instability often suggests sensorimotor deficits [
20,
21,
22].
The objective of the current research was to compare both the static and dynamic balance parameters in patients who had undergone pilon fracture surgery and in healthy subjects. Our study hypothesized that the static and dynamic balance would be impaired in the above-mentioned category of patients when compared to controls.
3. Results
The results of stabilometry assessment in bipodal stance (with eyes open and with eyes closed) are shown in
Table 2 and
Table 3. In both testing conditions, CoP path length and CoP mean velocity were significantly higher in the patient group compared to healthy controls. Although the ellipse area had increased values in patients, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups.
When assessing single-leg balance, we compared the stabilometry parameters between the two groups for the right and left legs, respectively (
Table 4). For the single-leg balance on the right leg (the affected leg in patients and the dominant leg in controls), patients had significantly higher values of CoP path length and CoP mean velocity compared to controls. For the single-leg balance on the left leg (non-affected leg in patients and non-dominant leg in controls), no significant differences were observed in CoP path length, ellipse area, or CoP mean velocity.
When comparing the single-leg landing parameters of patients and controls, we found no significant differences in ellipse area and peak force normalized to body weight for either the right or left legs (
Table 5). However, the time to stabilization during landing on the right and left legs was significantly longer in the patient group. The patients took more time to stabilize, regardless of whether they landed on the affected or non-affected leg.
Table 6 presents the data from the squat analysis. During the 20 s squats, there were no significant differences in CoP total displacement, ellipse area, and CoP mean velocity between patients and controls. The peak force normalized to body weight on the right leg was significantly lower in patients (with the right leg being the affected one) compared to controls (where the right leg is the dominant one). For the left leg, which was non-affected in patients, there were no differences in peak force normalized to body weight between patients and controls (the left leg being the non-dominant one).
4. Discussion
This pilot study analyzes both static and dynamic postoperative balance in adults following unilateral tibial pilon fracture fixation, using instrumented K-Force plates. Nearly all the static conditions showed that patients had significantly greater mediolateral sway, as indicated by CoP path lengths and higher mean CoP velocities, compared to the matched controls. In eyes-open bipodal standing, CoP path length and velocity were about 60% higher in patients (1015 mm vs. 638 mm and 33.7 mm/s vs. 22.4 mm/s, respectively). In eyes-closed bipodal standing, the difference between groups increased, with patient mean velocity reaching 36.4 mm/s, suggesting that reliance on vision alone is insufficient to restore standard postural control after fracture healing.
During single-leg stance, the deficit was side-specific. On the fractured leg, patients’ CoP velocity was more than double that of the controls (118 mm/s vs. 54 mm/s, p = 0.036), while their non-affected leg behaved similarly to control non-dominant limbs. This suggests that, despite radiological union and full weight-bearing clearance, the fractured leg shows delayed neuromuscular responses, whereas the healthy opposite side remains largely unaffected.
The dynamic balance revealed a different limitation. Peak ground-reaction forces during single-leg landings were comparable between groups, indicating that patients were capable of bearing the load; however, the time to stabilization (TTS) was nearly three times longer (e.g., 1563 ms vs. 501 ms on the affected side, p = 0.048). Longer TTS indicates delayed sensorimotor integration rather than weakness. This is supported by the squat analysis, where the fractured leg (right) produced significantly lower peak force compared to the controls (0.625 × vs. 0.843, p = 0.0009), despite no significant differences in total CoP displacement, ellipse area, and mean CoP velocity between patients and controls.
The reliability of the K-Force plates used in the current study has been independently verified [
11,
24]. The mean CoP velocity and time to stabilization (TTS) measured with these plates closely align with the results obtained from a multi-axis laboratory force platform [
11]. Therefore, the significant effects observed between groups are unlikely to be artifacts of the hardware. The study by Serrano et al. [
11] investigated the validity and reliability of K-Force plates in assessing the unipodal balance of patients and reported excellent test–retest reliability for CoP mean velocity and time to stabilization during single-leg stance tasks, with ICC values over 0.75. It demonstrated that K-Force plates can serve as an alternative to multi-axis force platforms for assessing bipodal or unipodal static and dynamic balance.
Due to their user-friendliness, lightweight design, and portability, the K-Force plates are suitable for field use or clinical settings, enabling semi-automatic quantitative diagnostics that can guide individualized rehabilitation of the lower limb.
Research on postural control after pilon fractures is limited; however, our findings align with broader studies on chronic ankle instability (CAI), which report similar postural impairments. A systematic review and meta-analysis by Xue et al. [
21] showed that individuals with CAI have significantly higher mean COP velocities in both anterior–posterior and mediolateral directions during static single-leg stance. Hong et al. [
30] confirmed these findings in their study with dancers and non-dancers, showing that CAI patients have an increased ellipse area and mean CoP velocities, especially when eyes are closed. Wikström et al. [
31] also identified deficits in dynamic balance using time-to-stabilization metrics, which supports the CoP velocity results and highlights ongoing neuromuscular issues in individuals with ankle instability. In our research, we observed that the mean CoP velocity during single-leg stance on the affected limb is notably higher than typical values reported in the literature, around 70 mm/s for CAI patients and 40 mm/s for healthy individuals. This higher velocity likely results from the combined impact of the fracture and surgical treatment, leading to lasting sensorimotor deficits and postural instability. The results of our dynamic balance tests showed a longer TTS and decreased force output, consistent with the balance deficits described by Wikström et al. [
31], and suggest that patients recovering from pilon fractures experience postural instability comparable to that seen in CAI populations, highlighting the need for rehabilitation that targets both static and dynamic balance. The results of Guo et al. [
32] have shown that balance training is beneficial in improving daily living and sports abilities of CAI patients, as well as enhancing the dynamic stability of the ankle joint on the posterior side. Despite advancements, there is still inconsistency in the training methods, intensity, frequency, and duration of balance training, and a standardized, specific balance training program is still lacking. The development of a more targeted balance training program could be a key area for future research.
This study has several limitations that may affect the interpretation of the results. The small sample size (n = 10 patients) limits the extent to which the findings can be applied. As a pilot study, these results should be seen as preliminary, with larger groups needed to verify them. The observed impairments in balance and postural control—increased CoP path length and mean velocity during static tasks, longer TTS after landing, and reduced peak force during squats—should be interpreted with caution. The small participant number prevents subgroup analyses and controlling for factors such as time since surgery, rehabilitation protocols, or injury severity, all of which can affect neuromuscular outcomes. Also, our dynamic tests revealed longer TTS and lower force in the affected limb. Still, these issues may reflect broader sensorimotor adaptations to injury and surgery that were not fully captured in our study. A larger sample could enable more definitive conclusions about the consistency and clinical importance of these findings.