Coronal Plane Deformity and Total Ankle Replacement: When to Stage with Cement Spacer Ankle Arthroplasty for Deformity Correction

CATEGORY: Ankle Arthritis INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE: Degenerative ankle joint disease is a debilitating condition that causes significant pain, adversely affects function and quality of life. Though primary arthritis of the ankle can occur without deformity, frequently soft tissue imbalances or joint deformities complicate the clinical picture. Often, additional procedures are required to balance the foot and ankle during the index total ankle replacement procedure. When large deformities exist a staged approach to first, align the ankle joint to neutral as stage one and then implantation of the TAR as stage two can be deployed. This paper will further popularize the cement spacer staged TAR technique in correction of coronal deformities, share a clinical algorithm on approach, and depict a case series demonstrating its application. METHODS: A case series was performed of 7 patients and 8 ankles, who underwent staged primary TAR utilizing a cement spacer to assist with deformity correction, between the years 2016-2019. RESULTS: Patients' mean age 58.5 yrs., preoperative varus coronal plane deformity mean 19.1 degrees, preoperative valgus coronal plane mean 10.25 degrees. Mean time from stage 1 till 2 was 163.5, +-140.2 days. Stage 1 soft tissue procedures: Chrisman-Snook procedure with synthetic ligament graft, Brostrum-Gould with synthetic graft, Brostrum-Gould without graft, FDL transfer, and isolated medial release/peel. Osteotomies performed during stage one: Dwyer, MDCO, Cotton, and MDCO with medial malleolus osteotomy. Fusions performed during stage one consisted: Subtalar joint, talonavicular joint (TNJ), and STJ with 1st Metatarsophalangeal joint (MTPJ). Seven ankles were replaced with Cadence Total Ankle System (Integra), and one with INBONE II (Wright Medical Technology). Average follow-up time for included patients was 290.75 days (9.7 months). One revision was performed following index TAR procedure. CONCLUSION: This paper describes a cement wedge spacer staged total ankle arthroplasty technique for correction and stabilization of deforming forces at the ankle joint. While not all ankle deformities necessitate a staged approach, the complexity of the malalignment and the extent of tissue disruption needed to achieve a neutral ankle should be considered when correcting a given deformity with a staged or non-staged approach.