Technical note: Resterilizable noninvasive ankle distraction device.

Arthroscopic ankle surgery can be performed effectively and satisfactorily in the majority of procedures without distraction. However, there are cases in which joint distraction eases access to the pathology and, therefore, improves execution of the surgical procedure. We developed a simple resterilizable noninvasive distraction device that is cheap, gives reproducible results, and is easy to apply. The main advantage of the device is that the choice to perform distraction can be made at any moment during the arthroscopic procedure. Thus, the operation can start without distraction in the dorsiflexed position and, if needed at any time, the distraction device can be applied and vice versa. The effectiveness was assessed in a consecutive series of 25 patients. The average force of distraction was 115 N, while the average joint distraction was 4.5 mm on the medial and 4.3 mm on the lateral side.