Questions about ATFL ankle surgery
Discussion
My wife injured her ankle falling off a mountain bike last summer. The doctor said it was a nasty sprain, but should heal fully given time. He recommended getting a physiotherapist to help with rehabilitation, so we arranged for a weekly session with a local physio. After the first few weeks the bruising has subsided, and the swelling had reduced, and we were hopeful it was all on track.
However, by Christmas 2021, whilst the ankle has somewhat improved, it would still swell up if used. My wife needed to still wear an ankle brace if walking more than 10 minutes or so, and the physio said they would have expected more improvement, so she suspected underlying damage, perhaps to the bone or tendon. The physio advised to stop physio work and instead go and see a consultant.
My wife finally got to see the consultant earlier this year, and he said it needed an MRI scan to identify the cause. The MRI has been completed, and we are waiting for the final interpretation by the consultant (this takes 4 weeks apparently) but his initial estimate was some form of ligament damage which might required ATFL ankle surgery.
It is 9 months since the ankle was injured, and we are worried if surgery is required, it is going to cause more disruption including affecting my wife's ability to ski next season.
I was wondering if anyone here had experienced a similar injury, and could perhaps offer any insight into how long it took to eventually fix and whether, if they have had ATFL surgery, how long it took to recover from the operation before they could ski, run etc?
However, by Christmas 2021, whilst the ankle has somewhat improved, it would still swell up if used. My wife needed to still wear an ankle brace if walking more than 10 minutes or so, and the physio said they would have expected more improvement, so she suspected underlying damage, perhaps to the bone or tendon. The physio advised to stop physio work and instead go and see a consultant.
My wife finally got to see the consultant earlier this year, and he said it needed an MRI scan to identify the cause. The MRI has been completed, and we are waiting for the final interpretation by the consultant (this takes 4 weeks apparently) but his initial estimate was some form of ligament damage which might required ATFL ankle surgery.
It is 9 months since the ankle was injured, and we are worried if surgery is required, it is going to cause more disruption including affecting my wife's ability to ski next season.
I was wondering if anyone here had experienced a similar injury, and could perhaps offer any insight into how long it took to eventually fix and whether, if they have had ATFL surgery, how long it took to recover from the operation before they could ski, run etc?
Traditional brostrum gould atfl repair is typically 6 months recovery
More recently the addition of internal brace ( fibrewire suture anchored to bone) speeds the recovery down tk about 3 months.
You should ask the surgeon what approach they are using and how their patients do with this, but generally a good chance of a good outcome.
More recently the addition of internal brace ( fibrewire suture anchored to bone) speeds the recovery down tk about 3 months.
You should ask the surgeon what approach they are using and how their patients do with this, but generally a good chance of a good outcome.
I badly damaged my ankle ligaments in the mid 1990s. It then kept recurring. The balance in my already hypermobile ankles was poor to begin with, but became worse in the injured ankle. Eventually there was almost no resistance to rolling-over on it and I ended up injuring the ligaments on the inner side of the ankle where the bones pinched them. There is still a lot of scar tissue on the inner side which causes a bit of a problem at times if I do roll over on my ankle -I wouldn't recommend waiting for it to become that bad.
I had ligament reconstruction in late 2009 (the ligaments were attached with pins/rivets to the bone). I was in a plaster for a couple weeks, then an air-cast for ~3 months. I think I was back to sports fairly soon afterwards (cycling immediately), I remember fell running in Snowdonia in summer 2010.
With re-hab, plenty of balance/coordination/weight training, minimalist shoes and ligaments that appear to have stiffened a bit with age, my ankle is much better than it was before the op. I wear a light ankle support when I do sports with a risk of ankle rolling (mainly because of the large scar tissue on the inner side deltoid ligament). It doesn't stop me doing anything -I regularly do off-road running, combat sports and the like.
I would recommend the surgery. It will be beneficial over the long term.
I had ligament reconstruction in late 2009 (the ligaments were attached with pins/rivets to the bone). I was in a plaster for a couple weeks, then an air-cast for ~3 months. I think I was back to sports fairly soon afterwards (cycling immediately), I remember fell running in Snowdonia in summer 2010.
With re-hab, plenty of balance/coordination/weight training, minimalist shoes and ligaments that appear to have stiffened a bit with age, my ankle is much better than it was before the op. I wear a light ankle support when I do sports with a risk of ankle rolling (mainly because of the large scar tissue on the inner side deltoid ligament). It doesn't stop me doing anything -I regularly do off-road running, combat sports and the like.
I would recommend the surgery. It will be beneficial over the long term.
Edited by MC Bodge on Tuesday 17th May 08:35
And on the other hand (foot).............
Not sure of the abbreviation being used however I tore an ankle ligament 4y ago on the outside of my foot by falling and in the process rolling my foot inwards.
It was damn painful, I had bruising over the outside edge of my foot around the ankle and I struggled to walk
Obviously I ignored this and hoped it went away but when it didnt saw a physio at approx 2 weeks who was excellent
The pain and swelling had settled by then but I still had a feeling it would 'give way' which indeed it did occasionally
Physio gave me a program of exercise and explained ligaments heal slowly but it would be OK in the end
It took probably a year for me to get my confidence back but its now fine and I dont worry about it any more
Im not an expert but this is an area with poor blood supply and is high jeopardy with respect to healing and infection on account of this if you have surgery
Im also aware there is an orthopaedic surgeon on here who is an expert
Whatever you go for good luck and heal fast
Cheers
numtumfutunch said:
Physio gave me a program of exercise and explained ligaments heal slowly but it would be OK in the end
It took probably a year for me to get my confidence back but its now fine and I dont worry about it any more
That's good, but it wouldn't have re-attached my ligaments.It took probably a year for me to get my confidence back but its now fine and I dont worry about it any more
I’ve had surgery recommended before - my left ankle was very weak after a big turnover with ligament and bone damage doing high jump years back. Lots of scar tissue, poor flexion and pain. I held off because of the recovery time, and managed to achieve a lot on it over the next 15 or so years in sport.
I then did it again five years ago, doing high jump!
It broke down a lot of the scar tissue the second time, and healed rather better than before. Definitely not a sensible solution though! It does seem that getting the surgery done is the best option - my original injury was nearly 20 years ago but I still have to manage it and it’ll give me problems as I age.
I then did it again five years ago, doing high jump!
It broke down a lot of the scar tissue the second time, and healed rather better than before. Definitely not a sensible solution though! It does seem that getting the surgery done is the best option - my original injury was nearly 20 years ago but I still have to manage it and it’ll give me problems as I age.
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