Background: Interest in mobile-bearing total ankle arthroplasty has increased in recent years. However, to our knowledge, no study has focused exclusively on patients with the diagnosis of inflammatory joint disease or has provided a detailed analysis of the risk factors for failure.

Methods: A prospective observational study of the results of cementless mobile-bearing total ankle arthroplasty in patients with inflammatory joint disease (mainly rheumatoid arthritis) was conducted at two centers. Ninety-three total ankle arthroplasties were performed. The LCS (low contact stress) prosthesis was used initially, in nineteen ankles, between 1988 and 1992, and a modification of the LCS prosthesis, the Buechel-Pappas design, was used in seventy-four ankles between 1993 and 1999. Clinical and radiographic follow-up was performed at yearly intervals. Three clinical scoring systems were used, and any complication was recorded throughout follow-up. Actuarial survival (with revision as the end point), multivariate analysis, and a competing risk approach were used to describe the long-term outcome.

Results: The clinical result at one year after surgery showed a significant improvement in the scores on all three scoring systems (p < 0.05). Ankle dorsiflexion (mean, 7°) also improved significantly (p < 0.05) compared with the preoperative state. The most frequent complication was a malleolar fracture, which occurred in twenty ankles. Only when it occurred in combination with a deformity in the frontal plane did this complication have an adverse effect on the end result. At a mean follow-up of eight years, seventeen patients (twenty-one ankles) had died and fifteen ankles had been revised because of aseptic loosening (six ankles), primary or secondary axial deformity with edge-loading (six ankles), deep infection (two ankles), and a severe wound-healing problem (one ankle), leaving fifty-seven ankles (61%) that were evaluated. The mean overall survival rate at eight years was 84%. An increased failure rate was encountered in ankles with a preoperative deformity in the frontal plane of >10° (p = 0.03) and in ankles in which an undersized tibial component had been implanted (p = 0.02).

Conclusions: Mobile-bearing total ankle arthroplasty is a valid treatment option for the rheumatoid ankle if proper indications are used. Aseptic loosening and persistent deformity are the most important modes of failure.

Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.