Treatment of talar osteochondral defect with peroneus longus tendon autograft

Background: Tendon autograft has been used in Freiberg’s disease, capitellar osteochondritis dissecans, and osteochondral defect in the knee joint. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiological results of patients treated with tendon autografts in the treatment of talus osteochondral defect (TOD), and to compare the results of this treatment with other treatment modalities in light of the literature.Methods: The study was carried out with patients who were treated for TOD with peroneus longus tendon otograft between 2009-2017. 17 ankles of 15 patients were included in the study. The patients who were operated had osteochondral lesions that were Berndt and Harty stage III-IV on radiographs, and Hepple stage III-IV-V on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Score (AOFAS) was used for clinical evaluation. Magnetic Resonance Observation of Cartilage Repair Tissue (MOCART) classification was used for postoperative radiological evaluation.Results: The mean age of the patients was 31.9±14.1 (min 17-max 64) years. The mean follow-up period was 23.9±28.7 (min 6-max 120) months. The mean defect size was 1.7±0.7 (min 0.9-max 3.3) cm². The mean AOFAS score was 50.1±15.7 (min 24-max 77) preoperatively and 90.8±7.7 (min 70-max 100) postoperatively. The mean MOCART score was calculated as 87.1±3.1 (min 80-max 90). Postoperative osteoarthritis was not detected in any of the direct radiographs of the patients.Conclusions: Tendon autograft was considered to be a reliable, easy, cheap and one-step method that can be used in TOD treatment.