Results of Total Ankle Arthroplasty Versus Ankle Arthrodesis

Several publications have found that the utilization rates of TAA have increased in recent years while those of AA have decreased. Regarding PROMs, in general, no differences were found between TAA and AA, although both interventions improved PROMs with respect to the preoperative situation. That is, both interventions (AA and TAA) are effective in terms of improving preoperative symptoms due to advanced ankle OA. On the other hand, 1 study observed that complication rates at 3 months, 1 year, and 2 years were higher after AA than after TAA (13%, 15%, and 16%, respectively). However, infection rates were similar (about 4%). In another study, the complication rate after AA was 25% versus 15% after TAA, and the revision rate was 16% after AA versus 11% after TAA. In short, it seems that TAA currently offers the same PROMs as AA, but with a lower percentage of complications, revisions, and reoperations in some published series. To definitively determine which operation is more Tsuitable in advanced ankle OA, more and better designed studies are required, given that the results published thus far do not allow us to determine which of the 2 interventions is more appropriate. The principal limitation of this article is that the selection of studies was subjective, that is, those that we deemed most directly related to the title of the article were chosen. Therefore, it is possible that some important articles were not included. This article is not a systematic review of the literature, but a narrative review of the articles we found most interesting. In addition, only the results of AA and TAA in the year 2022 were analyzed, and the comparative results between AA and TAA in the years 2021 and 2022.