Evaluation of Ankle Mobility Loss in Patients Undergoing Subtalar Arthrodesis

CATEGORY: Hindfoot INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: Objective: To evaluate and quantify the loss of ankle mobility in patients undergoing subtalar arthrodesis compared to the contralateral side, through physical examination. METHODS: A total of 12 patients who had only the subtalar arthrodesis procedure from various causes in one foot were selected. The same foot and ankle surgeon performed all measurements of bilateral tibiotarsal range of motion, with loaded closed-chain and unloaded open-chain tests. Then, to assess whether there was a difference between the operated and the non-operated side, statistical analysis was performed with the Mann-Whitney test (Hollander and Wolfe 1999). RESULTS: On the loaded closed-chain test, the operated side had a significantly lower range of motion than the contralateral side, with a mean difference of 5.4 degrees for dorsal flexion and 7.6 degrees for plantar flexion. The open-chain tests showed non- significant differences of 3 degrees for dorsal flexion and 5.3 degrees for plantar flexion. CONCLUSION: Subtalar joint arthrodesis was shown to cause a loss of mobility in the ipsilateral ankle, which is greater in plantar flexion movement.