Total ankle arthroplasty improves the limb balance, enhances symmetry and leads to recover postural stability significantly, as evident from the findings of a recently published study in the Journal of Biomechanics.

The study involved a total of 408 patients who suffered from end-stage ankle osteoarthritis. These patients performed quiet standing trials during the collection of center of pressure (COP) data. Comparison of data was done over the three time points (pre-op, one- and two-years post-op), and between non-surgical and surgical limbs by applying a linear mixed model. The limbs showed similar COP excursions in the feet-together condition following two years in anteroposterior or mediolateral directions.

Non-surgical limb group showed significantly reduced vertical ground reaction force across time while raising reciprocally in the surgical limb. However, no notable difference was seen in the vertical ground reaction force between limbs after the two years. Both conditions showed reduced limb asymmetry at each time point and were not considerably varied from zero following two years in the feet-together situation. On the whole, the treatment helps to improve the limb balance.