The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol 76, Issue 6 812-819, Copyright © 1994 by Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Inc
Synovectomy of the ankle for hemophilic arthropathy
WB Greene
Division of Orthopaedics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill 27599-7055.
The results of five patients who had hemophilia and a history of recurrent
hemarthrosis and hypertrophic synovitis and who had been managed with a
synovectomy of the ankle were studied at an average age of nine years
(range, four years and seven months to nineteen years). Compared with the
complications encountered after synovectomy of the knee or the elbow, the
rehabilitation process after synovectomy of the ankle was relatively easy,
even for the three youngest children in this series. The average duration
of follow-up was five years (range, one to nine years). By the latest
follow-up examination, the range of motion of the ankle had increased an
average of 10 degrees (range, -5 to 15 degrees). The rate of hemarthrosis
episodes requiring transfusion was reduced from an average of 3.4 per month
(range, 0.3 to 5.0 per month) for the six months before the synovectomy to
0.1 per month (range, zero to 0.2 per month) for the twelve months before
the latest follow-up examination.