Introduction: ankle sprains are a common sports-related injury. A 20% of acute ankle sprains results in chronic ankle instability, requiring surgery. Aim of this paper is to report the results of a series of 38 patients treated for chronic lateral ankle instability with anatomic reconstruction.
Materials and methods: thirty-eight patients were enrolled in the study. Seventeen patients underwent a surgical repair using the Brostrom-modified technique, while the remaining underwent anatomic reconstruction with autologous or allogenic graft.
Results: at a mean follow-up of 5 years the AOFAS score improved from 66.1 ± 5.3 to 92.2 ± 5.6.
Discussion: the findings of this study confirm that anatomic reconstruction is an effective procedure with satisfactory subjective and objective results which persist at long-term follow-up along with a low complication rate. No differences, in term of clinical and functional outcomes, were observed between the Brostrom-modified repair and the anatomic reconstruction technique.
Level of evidence: level IV.
Keywords: anatomic reconstruction; ankle sprain; chronic ankle instability; plantaris.