Scandinavian Total Ankle Replacement (LINK S.T.A.R.): Technical Problems and Solutions

Abstract

Alignment is an established key factor in terms of long-term survival rates in total knee arthroplasty [3]. This is probably also true for total ankle ar throplasty. Especially in young patients with post-traumatic osteoarthritis and hard bone, we encountered technical problems inserting the components with the desired precision. We think that these problems can be solved by some improvements in the instrumentation and we therefore propose some modifications and technical tips we learned during our first 23 cases. Our preliminary results with the Scandinavian total ankle replacement (STAR) are encouraging. We believe that with improvements in the instrumentation, the implantation can be facilitated in some cases and precision would improve.