Osteochondral Lesions Of The Talus
Osteochondral lesions of the talus are injuries to the cartilage in the bone inside the ankle joint. This is often referred to as a chip inside your ankle joint. This commonly occurs after an ankle sprain where the two bones hit against each other, causing a piece of cartilage and bone to chip off inside the ankle.
Symptoms include catching, swelling and pain in the ankle following a sprain.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of osteochondral lesions starts with a plain x-ray but more often than not we obtain an MRI or CT to stage the lesion and underlying bone.
Treatment
If the lesion is not displaced and the patient is young, often they will heal in a cast. If the lesion is displaced or the lesion is cracked, most often patients undergo arthroscopic treatment. The arthroscopic treatment of osteochondral lesions of the talus depends on whether or not the cartilage is intact inside the ankle joint. If the cartilage is not intact and it is a loose fragment in the ankle, we use the arthroscope to remove the loose fragment, drill the base of the lesions (microfracture technique) to promote fibrocartilage growth. . This allows that lesion to fill in with fibrous tissue which functions like normal cartilage.
If the cartilage is intact and there is an area of bone injury underneath the cartilage, we often will attempt to drill the lesion from below the ankle joint and try to promote healing. Finally, for those patients who have failed arthroscopic treatment, a graft procedure is performed where we take a donor graft of part of cartilage and bone and transplant it to the ankle. This is usually reserved for patients who have failed arthroscopic treatment. There are some new exciting developments in osteochondral lesions of the talus in terms of being able to replace the cartilage damage with cartilage either from cadavers or from synthetic scaffolds. The type of surgery that is required for your osteochondral lesion depends on its size, the age of the patient, the location of the osteochondral lesion, and its characteristics on MRI.
Schedule An Appointment With A Podiatrist
The skilled and highly experienced podiatrist at The Center For Musculoskeletal Disorders routinely treat conditions and injuries that cause ankle pain. Schedule an appointment to have your condition accurately diagnosed, evaluated and treated.