Early Outcomes of Arthroscopic Modified Brostrom Operation for Chronic Ankle Instability

Category: Ankle, Arthroscopy Introduction/Purpose: The gold standard for the surgical treatment of chronic lateral ankle instability is the modified Brostrom procedure. Surgery aims to re-establish ankle stability and function, without compromising ankle motion. Recently introduced all inside arthroscopic modified Brostrom procedure coincide with the goal on that aspect. The purpose of this study was to investigate the early outcomes of all inside arthroscopic modified Brostrom operation for chronic ankle instability. Methods: From January 2015 to August 2016, 30 patients were included. The visual analog scale (VAS) score, American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle–hindfoot score, Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS), and Karlsson score were used to evaluate clinical outcomes. Anterior talar translation and talar tilt were used to evaluate radiologic outcomes. All patients had lateral ankle instability. All patients had giving way, persistent pain, and an inability to resume their preinjury activity level for more than 6 months. Clinical outcome evaluations were performed preoperatively, at 3 months and 6 months postoperatively, and at a final follow-up using the VAS score, the AOFAS ankle-hindfoot score, FAOS, and Karlsson score. Radiologic outcome evaluations were performed preoperatively and at 1 year postoperatively at final follow-up using anterior talar translation, and talar tilt angle. Results: Thirty patients (19 males and 11 females) were followed up for a mean of 11.0 (range 4 – 23) months. The VAS, AOFAS, 1 FAOS subscale (Quality-of-life) and the Karlsson scores were improved significantly at the each follow-up period of 3 month, 6 month and 1 year postoperatively. Other 4 subscales of FAOS showed no significant outcomes (Table 1). The mean anterior talar translation and talar tilt showed significant improvements from 5.8 mm (SD = 0.4) and 7.9° (SD = 1.0) to 5.3 mm (SD = 0.3) and 5.7° (SD = 0.6) at the final follow-up each (p = 0.034, p=0.034). Conclusion: The arthroscopic modified Brostrom technique could be a viable alternative to the gold-standard open modified Brostrom procedure for anatomic repair of chronic lateral ankle instability. It can yield outstanding functional and clinical outcomes without adverse effects in terms of pain.