Outcomes in Total Ankle Arthroplasty (TAA) Revision: Can We Correct Our Failures?

by Vince Vacketta, DPM

A recent retrospective study by Wu et al. aims to shed light on outcomes of revision TAA. Between 2008 and 2022, 87 patients underwent revision surgery due to primary TAA failure. The study found a revision failure rate of 13.8%, necessitating further surgery for 12 subjects. Limb salvage was successful in all but one subject. Half of the patients retained motion with additional revision TAA, while the remaining half underwent salvage arthrodesis. The demographic data suggested that former smokers and diabetics having higher failure rates, although this trend was not statistically significant. 

Stemmed Components Win Again

Perhaps more interesting is evaluation of implant trends among the 87 primary TAA failures. The Inbone II implant showed a strong performance, accounting for only 4.6% of the primary failures. In contrast, the Agility, STAR, and Exactech implants comprised the majority of the primary failures, with rates of 20.6%, 21.8%, and 26.4% respectively. Furthermore, the Inbone system was the implant of choice for TAA revision, being used in 88.5% of the revision procedures.