Ankle Replacement Surgery

Hello All, I am 5 1/2 years post op and in love with my STAR!! I have minimal discomfort mild swelling and other then that I am golden. I go barefoot all summer and am basically normal. My ankle before required and obscene amount of pain pills just to function. I take two tramadol before bed mostly for all my other aches and pains. I am on my feet teaching most of the time so swelling happens and that gives me some discomfort.  I can honestly say STAR was the best decision of my life. Much luck and love to all of you. Just know sometimes there are happy endings!!

For anyone who is interested or who has any questions. 

I am 4 weeks 3 days post operation. I had a Wright infinity TAR and a ligament reconstruction at the Royal national orthapaedic hospital in London performed by mr Goldberg as part of the TARVA (Total ankle replacement versus arthrodesis) clinical trials. I was 4 weeks nwb. I am now in a plaster and boot and I am pwb. Since the op the pain in my ankle joint has disappeared although the ligaments are a bit sore since pwb. I think I will be in in an aircast boot at 6 weeks and then a brace 3-6 months. Very happy with outcome to date. 

Hello-

I'm a newbie here. I'm looking around the internet for any information I can find on TAR. I live in the US here in the Houston, TX area. I've been living with and tolerating severe ankle pains for around 15 years now. Last week, I finally had them examined by an orthopedic surgeon and the bottom line is he recommended TAR. I was devastated. Those old injuries in my past has finally come back to haunt me. Before seeing this doctor, I never even heard of TAR. In all honesty, the whole idea scares the bejesus out of me. I'm not rushing to get my bones sawed off so I've made appointments to see 2 more specialists in the next couple of weeks to get their opinions. In the meanwhile, I'm doing as much research as I can. I want to know more from people that had TAR done. I want to find out what others have gone or going through before I do this. I want to know if this is truly my best option. I'm 54, not obese (though I could lose maybe 8 to 10 pounds), a bit muscular, and pretty athletic.... back in my younger days anyway.  I want to go back to being more active again without worrying the about the severe pain on being on my feet. 

Is there anyone on this forum from the Texas? Can you recommend a specialist who's done TAR?

Regards,

Joe

Hello.  I am new to this forum, but it has been great to hear everyone's stories.  I have become more educated on the subject and I have more questions for my doctor too.  I had a triple arthrodesis or total fusion of my ankle 37 years ago from a football injury.  This ended my college career and I have not been able to run, so to speak, for the past 37 years.  I have lived a fairly active life during these years, always understood my limitations and always wore custom orthotics too.  A few months ago, I slipped and felt my weight come crashing down on my bad ankle and noticed that is started to swell much greater than it normally does.  I was concerned that I might have damaged the fusion.  I immediately contacted an orthopedist and knew that I needed some xrays to see what was going on.  I was fortunate to see a Foot and Ankle Specialist, although he was not far removed out of school and he was amazed to see my ankle fusion and the staples still in my foot.  Good news, the fusion was totally intact and he complimented the surgeon who performed this surgery 37 years ago.  Bad news, my foot was badly tilting inward, I had severe arthritis in my mid foot and the start of arthritis in my ankle joint.  We have treated the injury as a sprain and I started to do my research on what is next for my ankle.  The Dr. did say that at some time I would most likely need a TAR, but he was concerned that at age 56 I was too young.

As I returned home, I started to do more research on TAR, the procedure, the implements and surgeons.  I actually sent an email to the department head at Duke U. Foot and Ankle Department and found that their surgeons have a very good success rate with TAR and he invited me down for a consult.  Again, I think these guys where just amazed to see a 37 year old fusion.  LOL  Duke is only a 2.5 hr drive from me and I have been there many times in the past and played on their football field prior to the injury.

I was told I would be a very good candidate for TAR.  Since I had a triple, my ankle is one huge piece of bone, so no issues with the bone.  I was also told that I would need to have my heel moved to realign my ankle position.  So, now we are talking two major surgeries and they some what conflict with rehab of each one.

At this point, I have not made my mind up.  I have lived with this ankle for 37 years.  In the past 10-15 years, I have lived with pain and discomfort every day, but I push through it.  I have to limit how much activity I can do and I might need to have a rest day between higher activity days, but not sure I am ready to jump in and get this done.  I can not hike on trails, I relegate my activity levels to walking on hard paved roads and my competitive dog training days are almost over with. I have to have more discussions with my doctors to determine what can I expect after surgery.  Will I still have the discomfort in my mid foot with TAR??  After the realignment of my heel, how does that effect my mid foot too??  I have no doubt, after reading so many of you on this forum, that the TAR will help with the ankle, especially as I continue to develop arthritis in the ankle, but so many questions still remain.  

Thank you for sharing and your real life experiences will help me and guide me toward the right decision at some point and as I have always done, I will jump in and push on when the time is right.

Hello, after almost 5 mos after my My TAR I let my surgeon know that after he took me out of the walking boot within 2 days my foot swelled to the size of an orange & had such extreme pain i was barely able to continue with physical therapy.

He ordered an MRI &found that I had a stress fracture on my heel. No reason for how it happened. But I do know he fractured my tibia removing my ankle, and there was a large wound right where my 'stress fracture' is. Which is the very first place I told the nurse when I first woke up in the hospital where I felt the most pain! Not the incision where my ankle was removed, not where the screws were put after he broke my tibia, removing my ankle, but my heal. That is where the pain was coming from the most!!! What do I do? I just found out? My surgeon spent like 3 minutes with me, telling me it's probably because of my soft bones. (I had a bone density test done after the surgery and I was told I was doing pretty darn good for my age, 57, having Ostopenia, which I truth believe because my younger sister and mother both were diagnosed with osteoporosis over 10 years ago.

I don't know what to say at this point. It's Christmastime and I have 5 granddaughters, & 1 grandson. Some are blood-related, some are step. I love them all, almost equally...well gosh, y'all know. But anyways I am relegated to restrictions to a fractured heel, to which I believe resulted from my initial surgery.

Please tell me your thoughts ??

I am 12 daus out from left TAR with STAR  prosthesis. I had a local nerve block which lasted 36 hours which was great. I did not have to start narcotics until after this initial 36 hours. I had to take narcotics for five days, and since then I’ve been taking Tylenol only. Keeping it elevated is my best way to minimize the pain.

13 months ago I had a right TAR with STAR prosthesis plus subtalar joint fusion.    That one was more of a nightmare. I ended up with an entrapped  flexor Hallicus longus tendon which cause what is called a checkrein deformity of the great toe.   This has caused severe pain in the right great MP joint. Hopefully this is going to be resolved in a month when my surgeon goes back in and severs the FHL tendon. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. 

 It took me a full year to recover from the right subtalar fusion. The right TAR part of my surgery last year was much quicker to get over. However the MP joint pain has been very severe. 

This time around the left  TAR seems to be a breeze. 

I'm 12 days out from my right TAR as well.This will be the second to this ankle. The first one only lasted 3 years, it was a star. But I had my left ankle done the same year as my right and the left is still doing well. I had them all done as a out patient. This surgery after the first night the nerve blcked stopped working and I was in bad pain for 2 days then it got better. Now I'm just about done with the narcs and don't take much tylenol. Not much swelling and the stitches come out in 2 days.Bored.From Boulder CO.

Good luck to you.