Subtalar/Talonavicular Fusion

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craig power

Posted Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:11 AM

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Last Login: Thursday, June 04, 2009 9:28 AM
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I was told by doctor that my left ankle requires a subtalar/talonavicular fusion. This is a result of a crush injury almost 2 years ago. If anyone has had the same procedure I would greatly appreciate your input on pros and cons. I am only 32 and really struggling with the decision to have this surgery. I understand that it is irreversible but I have degen joint disease and I'm afraid that if I opt out it will cost me in the long run. Please help!

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Randy Nagel

Posted Thursday, September 03, 2009 2:40 PM

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Wow, finally found somebody else in the same boat as me. I too have a crushed talonavicular joint from a severe dislocation of the subtalar and talonavicular joints from a motocross crash 13 months ago. I had an open reduction and pins in for eight weeks, that was a year ago and right now my foot feels like I broke it an hour ago. I cannot transfer weight to the ball of my foot without extreme pain. Every surgeon I talk to tells me I need to get it fused to get rid of the pain, can anybody confirm that this will actually happen? Will this fix it so I can transfer weight to the ball of my foot again? This is important because I want my calf muscle to come back. Will I still have good up/down mobility? Side to side I know will be gone, but that is already gone from the arthritis. Anybody ever heard of artificial disks for this joint? I still want to ride dirt bikes and play hockey, but mostly I'd like to walk normal again, if anybody knows anything, please help us out with a response.

Thanks, Randy

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Annette McKinnon

Posted Thursday, September 10, 2009 2:11 PM

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I need to have a triple arthrodesis which includes the talonavicular fusion. I am not scheduled to have it yet as I feel the pain is bearable so far. I did get a custom made brace (AFO) that restricts the movement of the joints.

It is the side to side movement that I don't have. The flexion at the ankle is OK. This has made it a lot less painful

Annette

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Henry Meyer

Posted Saturday, October 10, 2009 11:05 AM

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Hey everyone. I injured myself riding motocross for fun March 8th, 2009. I landed hard w/ all of my weight on my left foot. I fractured my talus in several places, my calcaneous (heal) and most worst of all, crushed my navicular. I had an external fixation device for 3 months to allow my navicular to heal up us the best it could. It is a mess. It is also the site of most of my pain. I live in Nashville, TN. I work for GE Healthcare as a sales rep. The orthopaedic surgeon that did my surgery, March 12, 2009 said I'd likely be back in 6 months for a talonavicular fusion. I did not like the way that sounded. I'm 42 years old and very active atheletically and at work walking most of the day. At work, I sell ultrasound systems to doctors and surgeons. I work with orthopaedic surgeons and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation doctors a lot. The orthopaedic surgeons get paid to operate. For them, they will more often than not recommend surgery to fix a problem. Sometimes that is the only thing that can be done. The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) doctors will try everything possible to fix the area with out surgery and manage the pain. If you can control the pain with injections or physical therapy, I recommend! Just an FYI. Last week I made an appointment with another Orthopaedic Surgeon. This guy is a foot and ankle specialist. That is all he does. We have got to make sure we are seeing an orthopaedic surgeon that does foot and ankle only!...all day long! I think that is very important. He ordered a CT (CatScan) of my foot. It really shows all of the joint spaces and irregularities. He recommended a Talonavicluar fusion. He also said I may benefit from a Calceneocuboid fusion. This is to stop the pain at those joint sites. The worst pain I have is at the Talonavicular joint. I have done some reading on the internet and am wanting to do everything possible before I have to have a fusion. I'm not ready to give up that joint yet. The new doc I saw this week is supposed to give me the name of a patient of his that has had a talonavicular fusion and is now playing basketball again. He is my age 6'4" and 200lbs. That is encouraging if I have to have a fusion. I'm only 6'0" and 165 lbs. I am going to continue to speak with leading orthopaedic surgeons in TN as I travel and speak with other reps that sell medical devices to these guys to educate myself.

I'm also exploring stem cell & PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) injections. PRP injections help significantly speed up the healing process. The are doing PRP injections regularly with professional atheletes to get them healed much faster on back on the field. They are mostly injectioning tendons and ligaments. Stem cells can be taken from your bone and injected into areas that need bone or cartilage (muscle, tendon, ligament...) regrown. It is incredible technology that is relatively new but most doctors are not educated about it. I'm checking to see if we can clean up my joint areas and inject stem cells and PRP to grow new bone and cartilage before I just "weld" my bones together. Again, I want to explore all options before having a fusion done. There is a doctor in Memphis at the Campbell Clinic that is foot and ankle only and has done some of these stem cell injections but with fusions. I'm investigating this further.

Please share your thoughts with me and I'll keep you all updated on what I find out. Stay positive!

Henry

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Jerry SantaMaria

Posted Friday, October 16, 2009 11:04 AM

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Wow,

I'm 42 and got hurt 3 years ago racing supercross. Came up short on a triple and broke the talus neck. Now 3 years later my ankle is a mess. They triple fused me last year but the foot is varus. Now they want to do a pantalar fusion to straighten the foot but one doctor does not. He said he's seen poor results from that added fusion. He wants to remove my rod and rebreak the ankle and straighten that. Then he wants to straighten the talus which he believes is a non union still. He will take bone from my hip or knee for that.

Has anyone here had a pantalar fusion? Should I rebreak and have it done right?

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