Soft Tissue Pathology

Abstract

A wide spectrum of pathologies can lead to soft tissue abnormalities within the ankle joint. Many of these disorders can develop into irreversible joint degeneration if left untreated. Arthroscopy is frequently used to treat these soft tissue conditions such as instability, synovitis, impingement, arthrofibrosis, and other inflammatory disorders in the rearfoot and ankle. In general, the etiology of these ankle soft tissue disorders can be classified as traumatic, inflammatory, and congenital/neoplastic. Overall, the goal of diagnosing and treating soft tissue pathologies of the ankle is to restore anatomic and physiologic motion, reduce pain, optimize functional return to activity, and decrease the chance of recurrence while minimizing complications.

Keywords: Ankle impingement lesions; Arthrofibrosis; Congenital plicae; Crystalline synovitis; Degenerative synovitis; Hemophilic arthropathy; Infectious synovitis; Inflammatory synovitis; Neoplastic disorders; Pigmented villonodular synovitis; Posttraumatic adhesions; Posttraumatic lesions; Soft tissue pathology; Syndesmotic impingement; Synovial chondromatosis.