Joint preserving surgery versus arthrodesis in operative treatment of patients with neuromuscular polyneuropathy: questionnaire assessment

The purpose of the paper was to present the results of surgical treatment of foot deformities in peripheral neuropathies using bone procedures: both joint preserving and with joint arthrodesis. The study included 26 patients, 14 males and 12 females (43 feet). The age of the patients at surgery ranged from 5 to 55 years (average 23 years). The follow-up ranged from 0.5 to 15 years (average 4.3 years). Seventeen patients presented Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, three Friedreich’s ataxia and six peripheral motor and sensory neuropathies of undetermined nature. Sixteen patients had bilateral procedures. Four patients had to be re-operated during the follow-up. The patients were divided into four groups depending on the age and the surgical technique applied. The groups I and II (9 children, 17 feet) included patients with growth plate still present in the foot just before surgery. In the groups III and IV (17 adults, 26 feet), bone growth was completed. The assessment of all patients based on a modified AOFAS scale ranged from 44 to 105 points (mean 83.7; SD 17.5). The assessment on the subjective scale ranged from 3 to 10 points (mean 7.4; SD 2.1). The assessment of quality of life on the WOMAC scale ranged from 0 to 41 points (mean 15.7; SD 13.2). All patients stated that they would decide to undergo the treatment again. For groups I and II, joint preserving surgeries gave better results; however, the results could not be statistically confirmed. The results for the groups III and IV were inconclusive as to which surgical techniques should be preferred, arthrodesis or joint preserving. The results show that none of the surgical techniques used for correction of foot deformities in motor-sensory polyneuropathies seems to be preferable.