Staged vs concurrent hardware removal in total ankle arthroplasty

Introduction Ankle osteoarthritis is more commonly posttraumatic. Consequently, dealing with hardware removal is quite frequent when performing a total ankle arthroplasty (TAA). The purpose of this study is to compare outcomes regarding either a staged or concurrent hardware removal when performing TAA. Materials and methods 275 consecutive patients with TAA previously treated with internal fixation were retrospectively reviewed. Finally, 57 patients were enrolled based on exclusion criteria, and were differentiated into two groups considering the timing of hardware removal (staged—group A vs concurrent—group B) to compare: neurovascular and wound complications, time to recover full weight bearing, scar-tissue esthetic, and surgical time. Moreover, a subgroup comparison considering the surgical approach (single approach, minor additional approach, major additional approach) was performed between the group A and group B. Results No statistically significant difference other that longer surgical time ( p