Background: Little is known about health-related quality of life and functional outcomes in candidate patients with indications
for total ankle replacement (TAR) when compared to patients without indications. This study is to compare the quality of life
and functional outcomes in patients who have ankle arthritis and are with and without indications for TAR.
Material and Method: An evaluation was conducted on 40 patients who had developed ankle arthritis from various causes.
Forty patients were divided into two groups in accordance with their indications for TAR; the TAR-indicated group (11 patients) and the non-TAR indicated group (29 patients). Medical records of each patient were reviewed to collect pretreatment visual analogue scale (VAS-pain) scores, visual analogue scale foot and ankle (VAS-FA) scores, health-related quality of life scores as ascertained from short-form 36 (SF-36), and baseline data.
Results: VAS-pain, VAS-FA, and SF-36 scores were insignificantly poorer in TAR-indicated group (p>0.05). There were no significant differences in scores among the three groups of treatment as non-operative treatments, joint-preserving treatments, and joint-sacrificing treatments or between TAR-indicated group and arthrodesis group (p>0.05). There were significant correlations between VAS-pain and VAS-FA scores (Pearson’s r-correlation-coefficient (r) = -0.389; p = 0.019) or between VAS-FA and SF-36 scores (r = 0.564; p<0.01). There were no significant correlations between VAS-pain and SF-36 scores (p>0.05). Only SF-36 scores were significantly negative correlated with radiographic grades in Takakura (r = -0.382; p = 0.015) and the author’s (r = -0.378; p = 0.016) classifications.
Conclusion: Quality of life and functional outcomes in candidate patients with indications for TAR was insignificantly poorer than those in the patients without indications or patients in arthrodesis subgroup. Poorer radiographic grades of ankle
arthritis were significantly correlated with poorer quality of life, which is reflected via SF-36 scores.

Keywords: Total ankle replacement, Arthroplasty, Indication, Radiograph, Quality of life