Impact of Early Weightbearing After Ankle Arthroscopy and Bone Marrow Stimulation for Osteochondral Lesions of the Talus.

Abstract

Background

Osteochondral lesion of the talus (OLT) may be caused by osteochondritis dissecans, osteochondral fractures, avascular necrosis, or focal arthritic changes. For certain focal cartilage defects, bone marrow stimulation (BMS) has been a widely used technique to restore a fibrocartilage substitute overlying the defect. There are various postoperative weightbearing protocols for this procedure, with no single gold standard method.

Purpose

To retrospectively review the outcomes of patients undergoing ankle arthroscopy with concomitant BMS to determine outcomes based on postoperative weightbearing status.

Study design

Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the records of patients who underwent ankle arthroscopy with BMS for OLTs between 2015 and 2018. Patients were placed into 2 cohorts based on postoperative immobilization status: the nonweightbearing (NWB) group and the weightbearing-as-tolerated (WBAT) group. Patient characteristics obtained included age, sex, comorbidities, and etiology of talar pathology. Outcomes included the pain visual analog scale (VAS), range of motion (ROM), complications, time to first weightbearing, and the method and length of immobilization. Patients who were lost to follow-up before 30 days were excluded. The chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables between cohorts, and the t test was used for continuous variables.

Results

A total of 69 patients met the inclusion criteria for this study, 18 in the WBAT group and 51 in the NWB group. The mean lesion size was 9.48 × 9.21 mm (range, 3-15 mm × 2-20 mm) for the NWB group and 9.36 × 9.72 mm (range, 5-14 mm × 6-20 mm) for the WBAT group (P > .05). The VAS scores improved from 4.40 to 0.67 for the WBAT group and from 6.33 to 2.55 for the NWB group, with the difference in final values reaching statistical significance (P = .0002). Postoperative ROM was not significantly different between the groups. There were 4 repeat operations within the NWB cohort.

Conclusion

The surgical management of OLTs can be challenging, and the postoperative weightbearing protocol can be an extra obstacle for the patient to navigate. We found no difference in pain, ROM, or complications when allowing immediate, full WBAT.

Department

Description

Provenance

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1177/23259671211029883

Publication Info

Danilkowicz, Richard M, Nathan L Grimm, Gloria X Zhang, Thomas A Lefebvre, Brian Lau, Samuel B Adams and Annunziato Amendola (2021). Impact of Early Weightbearing After Ankle Arthroscopy and Bone Marrow Stimulation for Osteochondral Lesions of the Talus. Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine, 9(9). p. 23259671211029883. 10.1177/23259671211029883 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/30090.

This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.

Scholars@Duke

Lau

Brian Chei-Fai Lau

Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery

Dr. Lau is an orthopaedic surgeon that is dual fellowship trained in sports medicine/shoulder and foot/ankle. His clinical practice focuses on sports injuries of the shoulder, knee, and ankle. He has clinical and translational research projects with an interests in imaging related research. He participates and leads numerous multi-center trials. 

Adams

Samuel Bruce Adams

Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Amendola

Annunziato Amendola

Virginia Flowers Baker Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery

Chief of Sports Medicine


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