Any time you move your feet and legs, you utilize your ankle joints. Your ankle joints comprise cartilage, ligaments, tendons, muscles, nerves, and blood vessels, connecting the bones in your leg to the bones in your feet.
Common conditions and injuries that can affect your ankle and cause pain and mobility issues include arthritis, impingement, tendon injuries, sprains, and fractures. When you have persistent ankle pain, it can sometimes be difficult to know exactly what’s affecting your ankle, whether it’s a chronic condition or an injury that hasn’t healed properly.
At the Foot and Ankle Institute of Colorado in Colorado Springs, Colorado, our team led by podiatry experts Matthew Hinderland, DPM, Jordan Cameron, DPM, Trevor Whiting, DPM, and Joseph Fleck, DPM, offers ankle arthroscopy to expertly diagnose and treat ankle joint issues without the need for major surgery.
This month’s blog explores what’s involved in this surgery and how it can help address ankle joint issues.
Arthroscopy (arthroscopic surgery) is a minor surgical procedure that allows a provider to examine, diagnose, and treat several issues that can affect your joints. Ankle arthroscopy is just arthroscopic surgery that specifically targets your ankle joint.
During this procedure, the doctor makes a tiny incision to allow access to a thin tube attached to a camera (arthroscope). This camera looks inside the joint to provide vital imaging and information on why you’re having ankle issues and what the best course of treatment is.
A huge benefit of using ankle arthroscopy to diagnose and treat ankle joint issues is that it eliminates the need for any exploratory procedures or surgeries to not only discover what’s causing pain, stiffness, or problems with mobility, but also to treat the underlying cause.
Even though ankle arthroscopy is not as invasive as open surgery, it still requires anesthesia and special medical instruments in a hospital setting.
We begin by making a small incision — about the size of a buttonhole — and then insert the arthroscope into your affected ankle. Other incisions may be necessary if we discover we need to use additional instruments or see other areas of the joint.
The arthroscope allows us to see your ankle up close so we can precisely use any additional medical instruments to cut, grind, grasp, or provide suction to repair and reshape the parts of the joint that are damaged.
Once we’ve repaired the damage and removed debris, we stitch up the incision sites and cover them with a surgical dressing. The entire procedure takes about an hour, and since it’s a simple outpatient surgery, you can go home that same day.
Because ankle arthroscopy is so minimally invasive, you shouldn’t experience much discomfort during the recovery period.
If chronic ankle pain is keeping you from living life to the fullest, ankle arthroscopy could be right for you. This minimally invasive procedure allows for expert diagnosis and effective treatment without the need for major surgery.
Schedule a consultation for ankle arthroscopy by calling our office or using our online booking feature today.
