Tampa Bay Lightning forward, Alex Killorn fractured his fibula in Game 1 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. The Lightning were playing the Montreal Canadiens, leading 2-0 in the second period when Alex was hit in the ankle by the puck.
“One of the defensemen winded up for a big slap shot, and I decided to lay out to block it. It got me in the wrong spot, and I just couldn’t skate,” Alex said. “That’s when I knew something was really wrong.”
Alex had just come off a successful 2020-2021 season, and in 19 playoff games leading up to the finals, he’d scored eight goals and had nine assists.
“The Stanley Cup Finals is what you work your whole career for,” Alex said.
“Alex wanted to get back and play at all costs,” said Sean Lannon, MD (Tampa, Florida).
Dr. Lannon performed surgery on Alex using an Arthrex FibuLock® intramedullary nail, a minimally invasive treatment for high ankle fractures. When compared to traditional treatments involving plates and screws, the FibuLock avoids creating unnecessary bulk along the bone and eliminates the need for a second surgery to remove the hardware.
Three days after surgery, Alex was back on the ice.
“Getting him back as soon as we did is a really remarkable testament to how far we’ve come in orthopedics,” Dr. Lannon said. “I don’t think Alex would have been able to get back without a device like the FibuLock.”
Arthrex has been a leader in ankle fracture repair since 2010 with the initial release of the “all-in-one” ankle fracture set, the first set of its kind which allowed most ankle fractures to be treated with one case and tray. The addition of the FibuLock fibular nail to this set is a market-leading alternative to plate fixation.
“He broke his leg on a Monday. On Thursday, had a rod inserted in his fibula, and was skating by Saturday,” said Julien BriseBois, General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning. “That’s how you win the Stanley Cup.”
In the season following his surgery, Alex played in all 82 regular-season games, finishing with 26 more points than he’d had in the previous year.
“I feel like my fibula’s stronger now than it had been before,” he said.