Proprioception after total ankle arthroplasty

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic surgery
• Biomechanics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Total ankle arthroplasty (TAA) is an increasingly common treatment for end-stage ankle arthritis.
• The impact of TAA on proprioception (joint position sense) remains largely uninvestigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether TAA affects a patient's ability to sense ankle joint position.
• To compare proprioceptive function between TAA-implanted ankles and contralateral native ankles.

Main Methods:

• Proprioceptive testing was performed on 13 unilateral TAA patients with over 2 years of follow-up.
• Participants reproduced target ankle angles (dorsiflexion, plantarflexion, inversion, eversion) using a joystick device with lower limbs obscured.
• A repeated-measures ANOVA was utilized to analyze the collected proprioception data.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant differences in proprioceptive accuracy were observed between the TAA-affected ankle and the contralateral unaffected ankle.
• This suggests that TAA does not impair the ability to sense ankle joint position.

Conclusions:

• Total ankle arthroplasty does not appear to alter proprioceptive abilities in patients with end-stage ankle arthritis.
• These findings can inform surgeons and physical therapists in developing post-operative rehabilitation strategies for TAA patients.