CONDITION: Ankle Fusion Pain

DESCRIPTION:

What is an ankle fusion? Ankle fusion is a type of surgery used to relieve ankle pain due to damage to the ankle joints or the tendons surrounding it. It is commonly suggested for a degenerative ankle joint. For many years, surgeons have considered an ankle fusion to be the permanent solution for advanced degenerative arthritis of the ankle joint.

How is ankle fusion surgery performed? An ankle fusion makes the tibia, or shinbone, grow together with the talus, the bone immediately under it. During surgery, a cut is made on each side of the ankle, with the inner cut about 1 to 1.5 inches (3 to 4 cm) long and the outer one about 4 inches (10 cm) long. The bony bumps on either side of the ankle, called the malleoli, are removed to allow the surgeon to get into the joint. The joint is opened up, the joint surfaces removed and, if necessary, reshaped to correct a deformity. The joint is then put in the correct place and fixed with two or three screws. It is usually necessary to add extra bone into an ankle fusion to get it to heal and to fill any gaps in the fusion left by correcting a deformity.

Ankle fusion recovery: Although an ankle fusion is quite durable and patients can usually walk with a near-normal gait, pain is often experienced in the area after surgery. In fact, most physicians who perform this surgery will usually tell patients to expect pain afterward.

How does ankle fusion pain develop? Pain develops after an ankle fusion, or any other type of fusion such as that of the neck or back, because of the excessive stress put on the joints above and below the fused joint. Since the fused joint can no longer move, other joints need to move excessively and will eventually degenerate, causing pain. This is most clearly demonstrated using an example of a neck fusion: if the C5 and the C6 vertebra in the neck are fused, the C4-C5 and C6-C7 joints will most likely become degenerated at an accelerated rate as they start to move excessively because of the immobility of the fused joint between them.

What are the symptoms of ankle fusion pain? An ankle fusion stiffens the ankle, which means the individual loses much of the up-and-down motion of the back of the foot, but still has some from the other joints around the ankle. The patient will still be able to move the foot from side to side as this movement comes from the joint below the ankle. Pain is experienced with time as the ankle fusion places extra stress on the other joints around the ankle, which will probably develop at least some arthritis within about 15 years of the surgery.