LONG-TERM RESULTS OF WATSON-JONES TENODESIS OF THE ANKLE - CLINICAL AND RADIOGRAPHIC FINDINGS AFTER 10 TO 18 YEARS OF FOLLOW-UP

Thirty-seven chronically unstable ankles in thirty-six patients were o perated on with use of a Watson-Jones tenodesis, Thirty-four ankles (t hirty-three patients) were followed for a mean duration of thirteen ye ars and eight months (range, ten to eighteen years) after the operatio n, There were nine male and twenty-four female patients. The mean age of the patients was thirty-one years (range, fourteen to fifty-seven y ears) at the time of the operation and forty-four years (range, twenty -eight to seventy years) at the time of the latest follow-up, At the t ime of the most recent follow-up evaluation, twenty-seven patients (tw enty-eight ankles) were examined directly by one of us and twenty-five patients (twenty-six ankles) also were evaluated radiographically, Th e other six patients were interviewed, with use of a questionnaire, by telephone. Of the thirty-four ankles, nineteen had an excellent resul t (grade 1), eleven had a good result (grade 2), three had a fair resu lt (grade 3), and one had a poor result (grade 4) according to the rat ing system of Good et al, The mean score (and standard deviation) on t he ankle-hindfoot scale of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Soc iety for the twenty-eight ankles that were examined directly by one of us was 90 +/- 9.3 points (range, 68 to 100 points), Progression of an exostosis at the edge of the joint was detected in eighteen (69 perce nt) of the twenty-six ankles that were examined radiographically, but narrowing of the joint space was not seen in any ankle. No relationshi p was detected between the clinical results and radiographic osteoarth rotic changes or the duration of follow-up. The results did not deteri orate over the long term.