Abstract
Ankle/foot pain is a common complaint encountered in clinical practice. Currently, due to the complex anatomy, the diagnosis and management of the underlying musculoskeletal disorders are extremely challenging. Nowadays, high-resolution ultrasound has emerged as the first-line tool to evaluate musculoskeletal disorders. There have been several existing protocols describing the fundamental sonoanatomy of ankle/foot joints. However, there are certain anatomic structures (e.g., Lisfranc ligament complex or Baxter nerve) which are also clinically important. As they are rarely elaborated in the available literature, a comprehensive review is necessary. In this regard, the present article aims to brief the regional anatomy, illustrate the scanning techniques, and emphasize the clinical relevance of the ankle/foot region.
Highlights
Ankle/foot pain is prevalent, affecting 15% to 24% of the adult population older than 45 years [1].The complexity of the anatomy makes the diagnosis and management of the underlying musculoskeletal disorders extremely difficult
While the subject lies prone with the foot hanging out of the bed, the transducer is placed lateral to the Achilles tendon, at the level of the distal tibia, in the transverse oblique plane
While the second to fifth metatarsals are stabilized by the intermetatarsal ligaments, the space between the first and second metatarsals is stabilized by the Lisfranc ligament complex instead
Summary
Ankle/foot pain is prevalent, affecting 15% to 24% of the adult population older than 45 years [1]. There are several protocols elaborating the basic sonoanatomy of the ankle and foot, such as the anterior talofibular and calcaneofibular ligaments [4,5]. There is a lack of a comprehensive review elaborating the advances in US imaging techniques for the ankle and foot. In this sense, this article aims to elucidate the challenging anatomy, US scanning techniques, and clinical relevance of various structures/pathologies. Doppler mode was tuned up to the most sensitive level with no flow signals detected under the bony cortex.
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