Ten-year revision rates of contemporary total ankle arthroplasties equal 22%. A meta-analysis.

Background: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence criterion for hip replacements is a (projected) revision rate of less than 5% after 10 years. No such criterion is available for ankle prostheses. The objective of the current study is to compare survival rates of contemporary primary ankle prostheses to the hip-benchmark.

Methods: The PRISMA methodology was used. Eligible for inclusion were clinical studies reporting revision rates of currently available primary total ankle prostheses. Data was extracted using preconstructed forms. The total and prosthesis-specific annual revision rate was calculated.

Results: Fifty-seven articles of eight different ankle prostheses were included (n = 5371), totaling 513 revisions at an average 4.6 years of follow-up. An annual revision rate of 2.2 was found (i.e. an expected revision rate of 22% at 10 years).

Conclusions: The expected 10-year revision rate of contemporary ankle prostheses is lower than the current benchmark for hip prostheses.