Improvement in Health-related Quality of Life After Total Ankle Arthroplasty Compares Well to Other Successful Orthopaedic and Non-orthopaedic Procedures

Abstract

Category: Ankle Arthritis Introduction/Purpose: End-Stage arthritis is one of the leading causes of chronic disability in the United States. Improvement in Health-Related Quality of Life(HRQOL) after total ankle arthroplasty(TAA) has been demonstrated in the literature. This improvement has not been compared to that of other common Orthopaedic and non-Orthopaedic procedures including Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion(ACDF), Total Knee Arthroplasty(TKA), Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting(CABG), and Orthotopic Liver Transplant(OLT). Although TAA is noted to be effective in eliminating symptoms in end-stage arthritis, it is difficult to gauge the impact of TAA relative to other meaningful procedures that have been shown to have great impact on HRQOL improvement. The purpose of this study was to compare changes in HRQOL between TAA and other common procedures with large impacts on this outcomes measure. Methods: Five hundred consecutive patients with minimum of two-years follow-up after TAA were prospectively evaluated with the Short Form-36(SF-36) outcome instrument preoperatively, at six months, one year and two years post-operatively. An exhaustive literature review was conducted identifying studies with comparatively sample sizes comparing preoperative and postoperative SF-36 scores after ACDF, TKA, CABG, and OLT. The SF-36 Physical and Mental component scores were included in each cohort and compared for magnitude of improvement and significant differences between them. Results: Patients in all cohorts had preoperative SF-36 mental and physical function scores significantly lower than the general population scores. The preoperative physical function scores were lowest in the TKA group (average 31.1 +/-9.7) followed by TAA group (average 40.6 +/-16.3), ACDF group (average 41.5 +/-21.6), OLT group (average 51.9 +/-23.6) and CABG groups (57.8 +/-21.3), respectively. Improvement after surgery was greatest in the ACDF group (Mental +31.5, Physical +22.9), followed by the TAA group (Mental +13.9, Physical +26.8), TKA group (Mental +14.3, Physical +22.4), CABG group (Mental +7.6, Physical +15.4) and OLT group (Mental -4.47, Physical +9.8), respectively. The greatest improvement in physical function score occurred in the TAA group (see attached table). Conclusion: The mental and physical disability associated with end-stage ankle arthritis is as severe as that associated with many other Orthopaedic and non-Orthopaedic conditions. The improvement in HRQOL after TAA is greater than that obtained after TKA, CABG, and OLT but not as great as the improvement seen after ACDF; however, the improvement in physical function score was greatest in the TAA cohort. The HRQOL benefits of TAA are comparable to the benefits achieved after several other relatively common and successful surgical procedures.