Tarsal coalitions. Activity levels with and without surgery.

This study compares activity levels of patients with tarsal coalitions who did and did not have surgery and quantifies the return-to-activity time after tarsal coalition surgery. Thirty-one patients (mean +/- SD age, 22.1 +/- 11.6 years) with 39 coalitions (28 talocalcaneal, 1 complete talonavicular, and 10 calcaneonavicular) were included. The mean postoperative review time was 3 years. Fifteen patients (17 feet) who underwent resection had a mean +/- SD return-to-activity time of 10.3 +/- 5.8 weeks. There was no statistically significant difference in the return-to-activity time between talocalcaneal and calcaneonavicular coalitions. Thirteen patients (21 feet) quit sports; 11 (17 feet) were from the nonsurgical group. Three nonsurgical patients continued playing sports. The Fisher exact test was used to determine whether those forgoing surgery had a decreased ability to achieve desired activity levels. The correlation of surgery and failure to achieve the desired activity level was low (-0.69). Therefore, tarsal coalition excision is not correlated with failure of patients to reach desired activity levels. Patients forgoing surgery could not reach desired activity levels. Surgical excision of tarsal coalitions has a favorable outcome.