Ankle Arthritis: Minimally Invasive Ankle Fusion Using a Mini Plate Animation

Ankle Arthritis: Minimally Invasive Ankle Fusion Using a Mini Plate Animation

This surgical animation shows an ankle fusion procedure with a minimally invasive approach, using a smaller plate and screws than the standard ankle fusion, therefore requiring a small incision. The surgeon starts with a small incision on the front of the ankle.

Once the skin and soft tissues are retracted out of the way, the surgeon must get into the ankle joint and remove all of the cartilage between the tibia and talus bones. If there is any cartilage left between these two bones, they may not heal together. Some surgeons may use a biologic product to try and help with healing. A common choice is using bone graft from a cadaver mixed with the patient's own blood to optimize the environment for the bones to heal.

Next, pins are placed through the ankle joint at different angles, and screws are inserted over the pins all the way through both bones. These screws start to compress the bones together, which increases the chance of the bones healing together.

A patient with ankle arthritis usually has bone spurs on the front of the joint, so the surgeon usually has to remove these bone spurs to make the surface nice and flat. This helps the small plate that is used to sit right up against the bone. The plate is held in place with a ball-headed pin, and a small hole is drilled into the talus so that the first screw can be inserted.

The next screw goes into the oval-shaped hole toward the top. That way, when the ball pin is removed, and the screw is fully inserted, the plate and foot slide up, compressing the tibia and talus even more. One final screw is placed at the top of the plate to fully secure the plate to the bone, completing the ankle fusion.