Osteochondral lesions of the talus (OCT) are one of the main causes of ankle pain in young and active patients. The influence of age on the outcomes of treatment of OCT is still controversial. Some studies indicate that there is a negative correlation between clinical results of treated talar OCLs and patient age. Previous trials were mostly limited by a small cohort size and have been conducted in a single center. Registry data are considered more representative for evaluation of clinical results than data obtained in studies and might offer the opportunity to get a closer insight to the outcome of revision surgery.
We evaluated registry data on OCT of the German Cartilage Registry (KnorpelRegister DGOU) with regard to clinical scores and defect size depending on patient age.
Data in the German Cartilage Registry have been analyzed for singularly OCT with documented defect size and complete FAOS score after 24 month. Patient population was subdivided into 6 different age groups: <20 years, 20-29 years, 30-39 years, 40-49 years, 50-59 years, ≥ 60 years.
A cohort of 303 patients was identified. Average preoperative FAOS-Pain score was 61,179 (SD 20,385) and postoperative FAOS-Pain score was 78,74 (SD 19,675) leading to an improvement of 17,562 points. The different age groups showed no significant differences in the improvement of FAOS-Pain score with: <20 years: 13,417; 20-29 years: 18,832; 30-39 years: 17,466; 40-49 years: 18,613; 50-59 years: 15,571; ≥ 60 years: 17,747.
Patient age has no impact on the outcome of surgical treatment of singular OCL of the talus. The impact of patient age on defect size and surgical technique has to be further analyzed.