Arthroprosthesis of the ankle joint.

The authors report the results obtained with arthroprostheses of the ankle joint in twelve patients. The surgical indications were severe post-traumatic degenerative, lesions, rheumatoid arthritis and post-traumatic necrosis of the talus. The types of prosthesis used were the St. Georg-Buchholz, Smith and TPR designs. The joint was exposed in the majority of cases by an antero-medial approach. The results (at a minimum of one year and a maximum of two and a half years) were satisfactory, being excellent in eight cases, fair in three and negative in one. The one failure was partly due to the surgical exposure, which involved osteotomy of the distal third of the fibula.