Abstract
Introduction
There is less literature reporting outcomes following total ankle replacement (TAR) in patients presenting with a coronal plane deformity preoperatively. This study compares clinical and patient reported outcomes at 1 year between TAR patients with and without coronal plane deformity.
Methods
Patients from single centre prospective cohort (132) who underwent TAR between 2006 and 2010 were included. They were divided into 2 groups based on preoperative coronal plane deformity. Groups 1 and 2 had a coronal plane deformity of <10 and >10 respectively. Assessments included American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Score (AOFAS), Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS), SF-36 (Generic Health Measure) and complications recorded preoperatively and 3, 6 and 12 months postoperatively.
Results
There were 102 ankles (77.2%) in group 1 and 30 ankles (22.7%) in group 2. There was no difference in age and BMI between groups (p > 0.05). AOFAS, FAOS and SF-36 scores showed improvement for both groups from pre-op to 1 year (p < 0.01) with no difference between groups (p > 0.05) at all assessment times; except for mental health scores (SF-36 component) which showed no significant improvement (p > 0.05) and no difference between groups (p > 0.05). There was no difference in patient satisfaction for overall outcomes, pain relief, improvement in ADL and recreational activities between groups at 1 year (p > 0.05). There was no incidence of DVT/PE in both groups. The incidence of peri-prosthetic fractures was 8 (7.8%) for group 1 and 2 (6.6%) in group 2.
Discussion and Conclusion
These early results of total ankle replacement demonstrate that patients with >10 degrees coronal plane deformity had equivalent outcomes to patients with <10 degrees of coronal plane deformity. Our surgical techniques for correction of deformity are reliable to reduce the requirement of ankle fusion.
