Early Functional and Patient Reported Outcomes following Suture Tape Augmented Brostrom

CATEGORY: Ankle INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: Immediately following a lateral ligament reconstruction the strength of the repair is far less than the native anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL). With early functional rehabilitation the repair has shown increased laxity. We hypothesized that a Brostrom augmented with a suture-tape construct would allow early functional rehabilitation while maintaining patient reported outcomes within a military population. METHODS: This study is a retrospective cohort of 90 consecutive patients with chronic lateral ankle instability were treated with a Brostrom procedure augmented with a suture-tape construct. All had a preoperative MRI demonstrating ligament insufficiency, and was examined by an orthopaedic foot and ankle surgeon. Subjects were evaluated at 2, 6 and 12 weeks postoperatively. Demographics including Foot and Ankle Disability Index (FADI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and clinical measures including single- leg hop and single-leg heel raise were recorded. The population included (14 women [18%], 76 men [84%] mean age of 29.47, BMI 27.3) active duty service members. RESULTS: The mean FADI score pre-operatively (67) improved to 86 and 89 at 6 and 12 weeks. The VAS scores pre-operatively (4.8) improved to 1.4 and 1.3 at 6 and 12 weeks respectively. 95.5% (86/90) of patients were able to complete a single-leg hop and single-leg heel raise at 6 and 12 weeks. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that a Brostrom augmented with suture-tape can allow for early functional rehabilitation in an active duty Military population.