Anyone on here had surgery for an unstable ankle? Ligament repair i suppose?

Was it a success and how long off your feet?

yes mate, i had a ankle fusion 5 or so years ago.
involves chopping the bottom or one bone off and the top of another. a metal plate is bolted to both bones with a small gap. then new bone fills the gap to make a whole solid joint.
it worked perfectly.

i was bed ridden for a week. then 12 weeks of zero weight bearing, then a support boot for a month.
i did my physio very strictly. did what they told me to do. ankle is spot on now, apart fron no bend in it. but i would have it done again tomorrow no worries.

go for it. be strict and good luck with the outcome.

Cheers

World of difference between an ATFL graft repair and an ankle fusion gents.

Think mine is potentially an ATFL graft

Sounds likely if instability is the main issue, presumably following a bad sprain when you tore your ATFL? Fusion used to treat end stage degeneration where a joint replacement isn’t wanted/likely to work.

Also a world of difference between ankle fusions depending on why they are carried out. Mine has been less cheerful than Ton’s although is relatively stable now and deteriorating slower than the last three attempts.

should have said, mine started in 1990 with a ankle ligament repair. this did not work, and arthritis took hold. hence the fusion.

Multiple bad sprains, it now very unstable.. if i am going to have it done i need to understand how much time before back to normalish activity

Have you seen an orthopod yet or still at the GP referral stage?

Gp land at the moment, i can live with it and use an aircast ankle brace when working on rough ground but it will need something at some point

I’d suggest you need an ortho referral, you can then talk though the options with them and likely recovery period – as this will be influenced by surgical technique used, patient factors etc etc.