A New Lateral Fixed Angle Locking Ankle Arthrodesis Plate: Technique and Rate of Union

Arthrodesis of the ankle joint is a well-established treatment for painful, end-stage ankle arthritis. Managing deformity, poor bone quality or bone loss poses greater challenges for the surgeon. As a result, angle-stable devices such as blade plates and nonanatomic locking plates have been studied biomechanically and found to exhibit some mechanical advantages over screws in stabilizing the arthrodesis, thus potentially offering a solution. A new anatomically contoured, fixed angled lateral locking ankle arthrodesis plate was developed and its efficacy was assessed for rate of union in patients with deformity, poor bone quality, and with bone loss. The operative technique for using this plate is presented. Eighty-two consecutive cases were treated using this plate in our institution. The plate was used to treat 3 groups of patients with ankle pain: 70 patients with degenerative ankle arthropathy, 6 cases of nonunion following previous attempts at ankle arthrodesis and 6 cases following failed total ankle replacement. There were 70 primary fusions in the study with 40 cases of 10 degrees deformity in the coronal plane. A higher rate of fusion (97%) was achieved in the cases with 10 degrees deformity but there was no significant difference (P=0.35) between these groups [time to union in weeks:
Source: Techniques in Foot and Ankle Surgery - Category: Orthopaedics Tags: Techniques Source Type: research