title: Tarsal coalitions. Activity levels with and without surgery.
abstract: This study compares activity levels of patients with tarsal coalitions who did and did not have surgery and quantifies the return-to-activity time after tarsal coalition surgery. Thirty-one patients (mean +/- SD age, 22.1 +/- 11.6 years) with 39 coalitions (28 talocalcaneal, 1 complete talonavicular, and 10 calcaneonavicular) were included. The mean postoperative review time was 3 years. Fifteen patients (17 feet) who underwent resection had a mean +/- SD return-to-activity time of 10.3 +/- 5.8 weeks. There was no statistically significant difference in the return-to-activity time between talocalcaneal and calcaneonavicular coalitions. Thirteen patients (21 feet) quit sports; 11 (17 feet) were from the nonsurgical group. Three nonsurgical patients continued playing sports. The Fisher exact test was used to determine whether those forgoing surgery had a decreased ability to achieve desired activity levels. The correlation of surgery and failure to achieve the desired activity level was low (-0.69). Therefore, tarsal coalition excision is not correlated with failure of patients to reach desired activity levels. Patients forgoing surgery could not reach desired activity levels. Surgical excision of tarsal coalitions has a favorable outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sports Medicine, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA.
authors.forename: Amol
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Erickson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010027:Osteotomy; D012737:Sex Factors; D013177:Sports; D013580:Synostosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000601:surgery*; D013639:Tarsal Bones / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*