Conversion From Ankle Fusion to Arthroplasty — Good, Not Great
A well-reported case series gives us what we need to provide patients a fair counseling about a tough decision
What’s the Claim?
A case series of patients who underwent conversion from ankle arthrodesis to total ankle arthroplasty, mainly to treat pain, found at a minimum of two years:
- Ankle Osteoarthritis Scale scores improved from 56 to 28 (pain) and 62 to 31 (disability), which is good, but not great
- VAS pain scores improved from 65 out of 100 to 29, which means that the average pain score at full recovery was still 3 out of 10
- Slight improvements in ROM (with an average total arc of about 25° at most recent follow-up)
- 20% had another operation related to the ankle, with most of those for symptomatic arthrofibrosis
