Assessment Of Clinical Outcomes Following Ankle Arthrodesis Among Patients Who Had Post Traumatic Arthritis and Infected Primary Ankle Injury at Specialized Hospitals in Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria

This study is on the assessment of clinical outcomes following ankle arthrodesis among patients who had posttraumatic osteoarthritis of the ankle and infected open primary ankle injury at specialized hospitals in Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria, with the aim of determining the mechanism of injury, mode of treatment and treatment outcome. A retrospective study research design was employed for all the patients to collect data from the two specialized hospital records. The data were analyzed using Pearson and chisquare test tool. The results revealed that Motor vehicular crashes (MVCs) are the leading mechanism of injury, accounting for 66.7%, majority of patients underwent ankle arthrodesis using Charnley’s compression clamp, and on the functional outcomes measured using the AOFAS Ankle-Hind foot scale, findings show that they were favorable, with over 80% of patients achieving good-to-excellent results. The paper recommended that further research with larger cohorts and randomized controlled designs is warranted to more definitively compare the long-term efficacy and safety profiles of Charnley’s clamp versus trans articular screw fixation in ankle arthrodesis.