Abstract
Purpose: End-stage ankle arthritis is frequently combined with ankle-hindfoot deformity or ankle instability and therefore additional surgical procedures are often required when performing total ankle arthroplasty. We report the short term clinical and radiographic results of the total ankle arthroplasty with/without the combined adjunctive surgical procedures. Materials and Methods: The study is based on the 17 ankles (16 patients) of end-stage ankle arthritis that were treated with $HINTEGRA^{(R)}$ Total ankle prosthesis (Newdeal, Lyons, France) total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) from 2004 to 2007 with at least 12 months follow-up. The combined adjunctive procedures as well as the VAS pain score, AOFAS score, radiographic measurements and patient satisfactions were evaluated. Results: Average follow-up period was 29 months (13${\sim}$55 months), and the age was average 62 years (39${\sim}$75 years) old. Among total of 17 ankles, varus deformity and lateral ankle instability were found in 4 cases and 3 cases respectively. Twenty additional procedures such as Achilles triple hemisection (9), calcaneal displacement osteotomy (4) and lateral ankle ligament reconstruction (3) were performed in adjunct to TAA in 13 ankles. VAS pain score improved from preoperative average 8.4 (7${\sim}$10) to 2.0 (0${\sim}$5) and the AOFAS functional score improved from 41.8 points (13${\sim}$71 points) to 90.6 (77${\sim}$100 points) at final follow-up. Ninety-four percent of the patients were satisfied with the surgery. Conclusion: We confirmed that many adjunctive combined surgical procedures are often necessary in addressing the end-stage ankle arthritis (74%) with total ankle arthroplasty. We also achieved quite good clinical and radiographic short term results, although the long term follow-up study with larger number of cases are needed in the future.
