The anterior talo-fibular ligament reconstruction in surgical treatment of chronic lateral ankle instability.

Chronic lateral ankle instability causes significant problems in physical activity and accelerates development of osteoarthritic changes. The results of treatment for chronic ankle instability are often meets controversial. A surgical reconstruction of ATFL as described in this paper was performed during the period 1997-2005 on 47 patients (26 male, 21 female), with a mean age of 29.3 years. The average follow-up period was 46.2 months. All patients had clinical examination, X-ray and MRI. The mean values of the Good score improved from an average 3.32 prior to surgery to 1.19 one year after the operation. Paired t-tests showed improvements of great significance (p < 10(-28)). The Good score prior to surgery ranged from 2-4, whereas the scores one year after surgery were either 1 or 2, with a score of 1 being recorded in 38 cases (81%). In the postoperative follow-up, MRI showed a newly-formed ligament structure in all cases. The authors describe their own technique for a reconstruction of lateral ankle instability using remnants of the former ATFL. The scar tissue seems to be sufficient to form a new duplicated structure providing good stability. MRI proved to be a sensitive and specific method for identifying the extent of talo-fibular ligament injury.