Chronic Latent Syndesmotic Instability: A Surgical Algorithm, Patient Outcomes, And Return To Activity

Methods: The cohort is comprised of 23 individuals who elected to undergo surgical treatment of chronic syndesmotic instability. The surgical repair consisted of arthroscopic debridement in all cases with suture button fi xation of those patients who had greater than 4 mm of syndesmotic diastasis on arthroscopic evaluation. Inclusion criteria includes: greater than 2mm of diastasis at the distal syndesmosis on arthroscopic stress examination and failure of conservative management. All patients had a minimum of 24 months follow-up. This study retrospectively examined the prospectively gathered pre-operative and post-operative outcome scores to include: a Visual Analog Pain Score (VAS), SF 36, and an AOFAS Ankle and Hind foot Scale scores. In addition, patients were questioned on their ability to return to their preinjury level of activity and their ability to continue running sports.