Comparative Outcomes and Complications of Open versus Endoscopic Gastrocnemius Recession: A Prospective Randomized Control Trial

CATEGORY: Other INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: Both open and endoscopic gastrocnemius recession are commonly used for treatment of gastrosoleus contracture, however; there was a paucity of evidence in literatures to compare post-operative outcomes between the two techniques. The purpose of this study is to compare outcomes and complications between open and endoscopic techniques. METHODS: A prospective, randomized collected data of 53 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with gastrosoleus contracture and underwent either open (26 patients) or endoscopic (27 patients) gastrocnemius recession between 2016 and 2018. The primary outcome was ankle dorsiflexion and secondary outcomes were visual analogue scale (VAS), Short Form-36 (SF- 36), FAAM, plantarflexion weakness, operative times, and complications. RESULTS: There were 53 patients with mean age of 49.1 years, mean BMI of 26.5 kg/m2, and mean follow-up of 11.5 months. Both techniques demonstrated significant improvement of ankle dorsiflexion (12.1 vs 11.3 degrees, p<0.001) and all functional outcomes (FAAM, SF-36, and VAS (p<0.001 all)); however, there was no significant difference between the two groups, (p>0.05 all). In addition, there were significant shorter operative times in endoscopic technique (7.3 vs 18.7 minutes, p<0.01). Complications included wound complications (3.8 vs 0%), painful scar (7.7 vs 0%), sural nerve injury (3.8 vs 0%), and plantarflexion weakness (3.8 vs 3.8%) for open and endoscopic techniques respectively. CONCLUSION: Both open and endoscopic techniques were demonstrated significant improvement of post-operative outcomes as measured with ankle dorsiflexion, FAAM, SF-36, and VAS. Although the post-operative outcomes were not significantly different between the two groups, the endoscopic technique demonstrated lesser complications and shorter operative times.