Objective To assess the outcomes of the surgical treatment of supination external rotation trimalleolar fractures,comparing the techniques of lateral plating and antiglide plating as described previously.Methods This is a retrospective review.A total of 31 patients meeting our inclusion criteria,with supination external rotation trimalleolar fractures surgically treated between 2009 and 2011,were studied.17 patients were treated with antiglide plating,whereas the remaining 14 patients underwent traditional lateral plating.They were followed up by a period ranging from 14 to 38 months(average,26 months).The functional results were evaluated with olerud and molander scoring system described previously.All the data including time to surgery,operating room time,tourniquet time,hospital stay and ankle joint function scores,were respectively analyzed in accordance with the complete randomized design t-test.Results There was no statistically significant in time to surgery,operating room,tourniquet time,hospital stay and ankle joint functional scores.Conclusions The outcome of the surgical management of supination external rotation trimalleolar fracture is comparable with both techniques.Our data do not support one technique over the other.