What Does Ankle Replacement for Ankle Arthritis involve?

Tragically,  arthritis remains a health condition that brings a remarkable amount of pain, misery and anguish for those who are unfortunate enough to be afflicted with it, and this woeful state of affairs is made exponentially worse by virtue of the fact that there is no actual cure for arthritis. Instead, the medical community has only been able to control the symptoms of the condition to varying degrees of success, and ultimately, even here, the results are neither universal, nor dependable.

The existence of Total Ankle Replacement Technology is neither novel nor new, for this is a treatment for ankle arthritis that has existed since the mid 1970’s. However, the 1st Generation of TARs were a severe disappointment indeed, with atrociously high failure rates, not to mention a plethora of worrying complications. At this time, the medical profession was still not 100% confident about the vascular implications of the usage of prosthetic joints, and this in turn meant that the number of blood infections, and non unions were extremely high indeed.

The usage of TAR technology carried on into the 80’s but ultimately, petered out as it was regarded as too risky, too experimental and too dangerous to the overall wellbeing of the patient. However, the main method of resolving ankle arthritis, ankle fusion, was far from an ideal remedy as well, and the number of problems that arose from this treatment are legion.

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There has been something of a renewed interest in the usage of ankle replacement therapy. The following is an overview of some of the potential problems that still remain.

What are the risks involved with this surgery?

A potential complication that can arise from this surgery is where the nerves of the ankle become impinged. This in turn can cause a loss of sensation in the ankle joint, as well as causing the sensation of pins and needles.

Permanent tendon damage maybe endured during the operation, thereby affecting gait and causing pain. Furthermore, there is also the potential risk that the patient suffers an allergic reaction to either the implant itself, or to the anesthetic used to sedate them.