Concomitant Chronic Lateral Ankle Instability Affects Postoperative Functional Outcomes in Patients With Osteochondral Lesions of the Talus but Does Not Affect Cartilage Repair After Restoration of Ankle Stability

Purpose To investigate the effect of concomitant chronic lateral ankle instability (CLAI) on postoperative clinical outcomes in patients with osteochondral lesions of the talus (OLTs). Methods Patients who underwent surgery for OLTs between January 2018 and May 2022 were retrospectively evaluated. OLT patients underwent debridement, microfracture, or bone grafting, whereas patients with concomitant CLAI underwent lateral ligament repair or reconstruction. Functional assessments included the visual analog scale score, American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) score, Foot and Ankle Outcome Score (FAOS), and Tegner score, with a minimum follow‐up of 24 months. Cartilage repair was evaluated using Magnetic Resonance Observation of Cartilage Repair Tissue (MOCART) 1 and MOCART 2.0 scores based on postoperative magnetic resonance imaging. Additionally, multiple linear regression analysis was performed to explore the effects of potential factors, and Spearman correlation coefficients ( r s ) were calculated to assess the relationship between these factors and outcome scores. Results A total of 85 patients were included, with 39 in the OLT group and 46 in the OLT‐CLAI group. The mean follow‐up times were 46.95 ± 17.00 months (range, 24‐76 months) and 41.80 ± 15.10 months (range, 24‐76 months), respectively ( P = .347). Compared with the OLT group, the OLT‐CLAI group showed lower postoperative AOFAS and FAOS scores, with a significantly smaller overall improvement in the AOFAS score ( P < .05). There was no significant difference in the number of patients achieving the minimal clinically important difference in functional scores between the groups. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that CLAI surgery negatively affected postoperative AOFAS (standardized β = −0.344, P = .001) and FAOS (standardized β = −0.332, P = .001) scores, with Spearman analysis indicating a moderate correlation ( r s = −0.442 [ P < .001] and r s = −0.339 [ P = .002], respectively). No significant differences were observed between the groups in terms of MOCART 1 (61.52 ± 12.38 vs 65.89 ± 14.47) or MOCART 2.0 (68.70 ± 16.53 vs 73.75 ± 14.76) scores ( P > .05), and multiple linear regression as well as Spearman analysis did not yield positive results. Conclusions OLT patients with concomitant CLAI had lower postoperative functional outcomes than those without CLAI. However, after surgical treatment of CLAI, cartilage repair in OLT patients was not affected. Level of Evidence Level III, retrospective comparative study.