Ankle Instability

Lateral ankle instability is a specific complaint that occurs as a result of injury to the ligamentous complex on the lat-eral side of the ankle. Initially, complete ruptures of these ligaments should be treated with nonoperative therapy, as this gives good results in 80 % of patients.3,5 In patients who do not respond, surgical treatment may be pursued. Many procedures to address this chronic laxity have been described. Anatomical surgical procedures, such as one described by Broström, involve reattachment of the anatom-ical tissues (most common, the anterior talofibular ligament and, less common, the calcaneofibular ligament) that have been disrupted.3,4 Nonanatomical procedures seek to further stabilize the lateral ankle by using additional tissue when native ligamentous tissue fails; this traditionally involves the sacrifice of a portion of the peroneal tendons to support the injured ligaments.ll Multiple reports address long-term results of nonanatomical surgical procedures for ankle insta-bility.1,2,14,17,21-23 Some long-term studies of nonanatomical reconstructions report maintenance of stability but at the cost of sacrifice of the peroneal tendons and the potential for nonanatomical forces across the ankle joint causing future ankle degeneration.22 We evaluated the long-term results of an anatomical repair of the lateral ankle ligaments in patients with chronic lateral ankle instability, using a validated functional score