The Best Info We’ve Got on Return to Sport After Lateral Ankle Ligament Surgery
At first pass, the numbers look fantastic, but we'll show you why the fine print matters
What’s the Claim?
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 25 studies (and nearly 1400 patients) evaluated return to sport after anatomic repair or reconstruction of lateral ankle ligaments.
- Nearly all patients — 95% (95% CI 91% to 99%) — were able to return to sport at some level
- 87% (71% to 98%) returned to competitive sport, and 83%(73% to 91%) returned to their preinjury level of sport
- Older age and higher BMI work against our patients (between ages 20 and 45)
- Each decade of advancing reduced the probability of returning to sport by 6%, and each 5 kg/m2 increase of BMI (from 22 to35 or so) decreased the probability by 4%
