Reliability of a rating scale for assessing alignment of the posterior facet after surgical repair of joint depression fractures of the calcaneus.

Radiographs are frequently used to classify joint depression calcaneal fractures and assess the degree of repair of such injuries. To associate the degree of repair with clinical outcomes such as foot-related quality of life and subjective patient satisfaction, it would be useful to have a valid measuring instrument that has been shown to reliably categorize the alignment of the posterior facet of the calcaneus. To be considered valid, the measurement must have inter-rater and intrarater reliability. In an effort to demonstrate the validity of a coronal plane computed tomographic measurement for categorizing the alignment of the posterior facet after repair of joint depression fractures of the calcaneus, we measured the inter-rater and intrarater reliability of the classification system.