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The improvement of postural control in patients with mechanical ankle instability after lateral ankle ligaments reconstruction

  • Ankle
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

Lateral ankle sprain is the most common injury. A previous study demonstrated that patients with mechanical ankle instability suffered deficits in postural control, indicating that structural damage of the lateral ankle ligaments may produce a balance deficit. The purpose of this study was to confirm that lateral ligaments reconstruction could improve postural control in patients with mechanical ankle instability.

Methods

A total of 15 patients were included in the study. Each patient had a history of an ankle sprain with persistent symptoms of ankle instability and a positive anterior drawer test and had been treated nonoperatively for at least 3 months. All patients were diagnosed with lateral ankle ligaments tear by ultrasonography and magnetic resonance imaging. They underwent arthroscopic debridement and open lateral ankle ligaments reconstruction with a modified Broström procedure. One day before and 6 months after the operation, all of the participants underwent single-limb postural sway tests. The anterior drawer test and the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society scale score were used to evaluate the clinical results in these patients.

Results

At 6 months after the operation, with the patients’ eyes closed, there was significantly decreased postural sway in the anteroposterior direction, the circumferential area, and the total path length on the operated ankles compared with those measurements before the operation. With eyes open, however, no difference was found in postural sway before and after the operation.

Conclusions

Postural control was improved by reconstructing the lateral ligaments.

Level of evidence

IV.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant awarded to Ying-Hui Hua from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC81101391).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sports Medicine Center of Fudan University, Department of Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Surgery, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, No. 12 Urumq Middle Road, Shanghai, 20040, China

    Hong-Yun Li, Jian Zhang, Ying-Hui Hua & Shi-Yi Chen

  2. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Huadong Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Shanghai, 200040, China

    Jie-Jiao Zheng

  3. Department of Ultrasonography, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai, 20040, China

    Ye-Hua Cai

Authors
  1. Hong-Yun Li
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  2. Jie-Jiao Zheng
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  3. Jian Zhang
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  4. Ye-Hua Cai
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  5. Ying-Hui Hua
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  6. Shi-Yi Chen
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Correspondence to Ying-Hui Hua.

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Li, HY., Zheng, JJ., Zhang, J. et al. The improvement of postural control in patients with mechanical ankle instability after lateral ankle ligaments reconstruction. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 24, 1081–1085 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-015-3660-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-015-3660-2

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