Anterior tibiotalar impingement associated with chronic ankle instability.

The authors describe the surgical treatment of 13 cases of chronic ankle instability and concomitant anterior bony impingement of the ankle in professional and recreational athletes. All patients had symptoms and signs of lateral instability and a painful block to dorsiflexion. Two patients presented with recurrence of impingement after a previous debridement alone without an ankle stabilization. The anterior osteophytes were debrided arthroscopically and a Brostrom-Gould open stabilization was performed. After a mean follow-up period of 12 months (range 4-23 months), all 13 patients had mechanically and functionally stable ankles. The mean improvement in range of dorsiflexion was 12.4 degrees and all but one had improvement with respect to a subjective and functional outcome assessment. There have been no recurrences of impingement to date. These results suggest that ankle stabilization performed in conjunction with debridement of osteophytes may reduce the recurrence of exostoses as well as improving the outcome.