Blog for Pete S. Deol, D.O.
Does ankle sprain surgery affect long term performance?
As more and more children and young adults become involved in athletics and sports, there is an increased incidence of injuries to the foot and ankle. One of the most common injuries that I see is sprains of the ankle. Although most people completely recover from these injuries, those that fail to improve may be due to an injury of the cartilage within the ankle.
When these athletes with cartilage injuries don’t get better, sometimes surgery is necessary. A natural concern of patients and their families is whether these ankles treated with surgery will ever completely recover and will they become arthritic later in life. These questions lead me to examine how these young patients treated with arthroscopic surgery of the ankle do long-term.
Over the past couple years, I’ve gathered and examined data on over 140 patients of all ages treated surgically for cartilage injuries to the ankle. I found that although most patients do very well after surgery, younger patients under the age of 20 years did the best! Most importantly, there was no evidence of arthritis in these younger patients even years after surgery.
This data has generated a great deal of interest within the orthopedic community and has recently been presented at 3 national and international meetings. It is currently planned for publication in a national orthopedic surgery journal later this year.
The information on this site is purely informational and may not pertain to your specific ailment. It should not be taken in lieu of a doctor's advice!
