As a fused ankle provides a painless ankle joint with limited functional disability, ankle arthrodesis is still the treatment of choice for most disabling ankle arthritis. From January 1987 to December 1990, 45 cases of ankle arthrodesis were performed, including 27 male and 18 female patients, aged from 18 to 70 years with an average of 41.9 years. The causes leading to arthrodesis included 19 cases of post-traumatic arthritis, 3 rheumatoid arthritis, 7 osteoarthritis, 9 ankle infections (4 pyogenic and 5 tuberculosis), 4 ankle deformities, 2 avascular necrosis of the talus and 1 cases of Charcot joint. The methods included modified Blair's ankle arthrodesis (34 cases), compression arthrodesis (7 cases) either by Hoffman external fixation or triangular compression device, and intra articular arthrodesis by staple fixation (4 cases). The follow up period ranged from 17 Ms to 52 Ms with an average of 28.6 Ms. There were 2 cases who ultimately required amputation due to uncontrollable infection, and 2 cases of nonunion and one of them received refusion. There were 11 cases of delayed union (union time more than 6 Ms). The average union time was 5.6 Ms, ranging from 2 Ms to 10 Ms. Excluding the cases of amputation and nonunion, all patients had improvement in the ankle functional scale evaluation and 85.3% of the patients were satisfied with their present condition. The modified Blair's method of ankle arthrodesis has proven to be an effective method for treating ankle arthritis no matter what the cause. However, for cases of infection, compression arthrodesis with an external fixational device is superior.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)