For patients with end-stage ankle osteoarthritis, total ankle replacement (TAR) and ankle fusion (AF) have similar clinical scores and harms, according to a study published online Nov. 15 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Andrew J. Goldberg, M.B.B.S., from the UCL Institute of Orthopaedics & Musculoskeletal Science in London, and colleagues conducted a randomized trial to compare TAR to AF among patients with end-stage ankle osteoarthritis, aged 50 to 85 years. The primary outcome was change in Manchester-Oxford Foot Questionnaire walking/standing (MOXFQ-W/S) domain scores from baseline to 52 weeks after surgery.
Three hundred three patients were randomly assigned between March 6, 2015, and Jan. 10, 2019; clinical scores were analyzed for 281 participants. The researchers found that at 52 weeks, both groups had improvement in the mean MOXFQ-W/S scores.
