Leaning Towards an Ankle Fusion скачать в хорошем качестве

Leaning Towards an Ankle Fusion

To fuse or not to fuse, for many people with debilitating ankle pain, that is the question. The surgery is used to relieve pain in arthritic ankles that have lost their cushioning cartilage. “We manage joint issues the best we can without surgery, with injections and therapy and bracing; but when we run out of options, it’s a level of function in your life and quality of life,” says Dr. Jason Nemitz who is a foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon with Lee Memorial Health System. The surgery strips remaining cartilage and resurfaces the ankle bones. Then screws and hardware fuse them together into one bone. “The idea being if you compress those two joints together and put those two surfaces of the prepared bone together you’re trying to convince those two surfaces that they’re actually a broken bone that they’re going to heal to each other,” says Dr. Nemitz. From a patient’s perspective the drawback is loss of motion: a direct result of fusing bones. While flexibility is diminished, most people find all is not lost. “The foot can go up and down as well as side to side. When we’re talking about where they are with loss of motion we usually only lose about 5 to 10 degrees of motion after this type of surgery,” says Dr. Nemitz. Another surgical option is an ankle replacement, which relies on an implant similar to artificial hips and knees. A newer and more delicate operation, outcomes are improving. But the gold standard remains the fusion. “Long term data shows you can get 20-25 year longevity out of an ankle fusion,” says Dr. Nemitz. For people leaning toward an ankle fusion, they may find relief knowing decades of satisfaction support the procedure. View More Health Matters video segments at leememorial.org/healthmatters/ Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Visit leememorial.org