Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic & Related Surgery
Original ArticleSubtalar Arthroscopy for Sinus Tarsi Syndrome: Arthroscopic Findings and Clinical Outcomes of 33 Consecutive Cases
Section snippets
Methods
A retrospective review was performed on 53 cases in 50 consecutive STS patients who underwent subtalar arthroscopy between November 2004 and July 2006. To avoid confusion, we excluded 19 patients (20 cases) with fractures around the sinus tarsi (calcaneal fracture, talus fracture, lateral malleolar fracture, and Lisfranc fracture) and/or who underwent additional procedures for combined lesions of the foot and ankle (ankle lateral ligament reconstruction, arthroscopic microfracture for
Results
At arthroscopy, pathologic findings were observed in all 33 cases. In descending order, a partial tear of the ITCL was observed in 29 cases (88%), synovitis in 18 (55%), partial tear of the CL in 11 (33%), arthrofibrosis in 8 (24%), and soft-tissue impingement in 7 (21%) (Table 1 and Fig 1). Of the 33 cases, 28 had combined pathology; two pathologies in 19 cases, three in 7, and four in 2. Of the 29 cases with an ITCL partial tear, 2 had no other pathologic findings. In the remaining 27,
Discussion
All 31 patients enrolled in this study had a preoperative diagnosis of STS. However, in the orthopaedic literature, STS is a vague term that is used to describe clinical entities with causes ranging from traumatic sprains to soft-tissue masses, and thus we suggest that its replacement by some more accurate diagnosis is overdue.14 However, the complex anatomy of the subtalar joint makes accurate diagnosis difficult by radiologic and arthroscopic examinations.1, 8, 12, 13 Lektrakul et al.11
Conclusions
Subtalar arthroscopy identified pathologies in the subtalar joint in patients with STS and showed that treatment of these pathologies led to improved function.
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The authors report no conflict of interest.