Interactive Transcript
0:01
Dr.
0:01
Chung mentioned three major structures that are important
0:05
for, um, the integrity
0:08
of the longitudinal arch.
0:10
Uh, she primarily focused on the plantar fascia.
0:13
So here we'll talk a little bit about
0:15
those two other structures.
0:16
She mentioned posterior tubial tendon
0:19
and your spring ligament complex.
0:21
Uh, and so this case is a 77-year-old woman
0:26
who had a protruding and painful ankle.
0:30
Uh, so just starting with the patient demographics
0:33
and the history that elderly woman with foot mal alignment,
0:37
I think you should already be thinking about the possibility
0:39
of posterior tibial tendon insufficiency
0:42
and adult acquired flatfoot.
0:45
Um, I think it is challenging
0:47
to assess hindfoot valgus on MRI when it's subtle,
0:51
and there was a question in the chat earlier about whether
0:53
or not we measure angles.
0:55
Um, I, um, like Dr.
0:57
Chung, I don't love to measure things if I can help it,
1:01
I just like to get a gestalt for what's happening.
1:04
Um, if you wanted to measure, um, there is an angle
1:08
that's been proposed, the Hein foot valgus angle, uh,
1:11
from Donovan and Rosenberg.
1:14
And you've basically measured that
1:15
by looking at the most posterior slice
1:18
where you see the tibia and the calcaneus.
1:22
And if you, um, take the angle between the longitudinal axis
1:26
of the tibia and the medial wall of the calcaneus,
1:30
and it's greater than six degrees, um, that's,
1:34
uh, abnormal, uh, hindfoot alignment.
1:38
Hindfoot valgus here, I think without even measuring,
1:41
we can see that this is severe hindfoot valgus.
1:46
Um, if we look at our localizers, which give us a,
1:49
a bigger field of view to kind of give us a sense
1:54
of the overall foot alignment, we can see
1:56
that if this was weightbearing,
1:58
it looks like calcaneal pitch is
2:00
probably gonna be decreased.
2:02
And then, um, looking at the medial longitudinal arch,
2:05
it looks like if we, uh, follow the axis of our tails
2:09
with our first metatarsal shaft, it's gonna be convex down.
2:13
So compatible with PEs planus.
2:20
So, um, usually that maintenance
2:23
of the medial longitudinal arch, um,
2:26
is lost when you have problems
2:28
with your posterior tibial tendon.
2:30
Um, and then that causes the foot mal alignment, which leads
2:35
to secondary injury to the needles, the,
2:38
the supporting structures.
2:40
Um, most importantly, our spring ligamentus complex.
2:44
So looking at our posterior tibial tendon, it's actually not
2:48
horribly abnormal in this patient.
2:51
I think you might argue that there's a little bit
2:53
of increased signal, um, within the substance of the tendon,
2:57
so compatible with tendinosis,
2:59
and then some tenino synovial fluid
3:01
around the tendon compatible with penis synovitis.
3:07
And then if we turn our attention
3:09
to the spring ligamentus complex, again,
3:12
there are those three major components.
3:15
Your s medial, um, spring
3:19
ligament is gonna extend from your slum tail eye.
3:24
It's gonna form like a hammock
3:26
or a sling around the medial tail or head.
3:29
And then it's gonna attach, um, to the dorsal
3:34
medial aspect of the navicular here.
3:38
It normally should separate the medial tail head from the
3:41
posterior tibial tendon.
3:43
Here, I think a little bit attenuated,
3:45
some altered signal within it, um,
3:48
and then also some edema within the underlying, um,
3:52
medial tail head.
3:53
So this I think is not normal.
3:55
Um, interestingly, the other way
3:58
that the sial spring ligament can be abnormal is kind
4:02
of the opposite of this, where you see a thickened um,
4:05
ligament and it's thought that
4:08
because of the hind foot vgu,
4:10
you get some altered weight bearing, which is gonna lead
4:12
to thickening of the ligament.
4:14
So if you're a measurer
4:16
and you want to put calipers on it, um, it's been proposed
4:19
that a measurement of greater than four millimeters in
4:22
thickness should be considered abnormal.
4:26
So again, those medial plantar, um,
4:29
and feral plantar longitudinal components
4:33
of the spring ligament are gonna be best seen, I think,
4:36
on the axial images.
4:38
Um, to be honest, I think injuries
4:40
to these structures are a little bit more challenging
4:42
to identify and most
4:44
of them are not really gonna be addressed surgically.
4:48
Um, but important to,
4:51
to take a look at these structures also.
4:55
And then, um, because of that hindfoot vgu that we noted,
4:59
um, we're gonna get failure of the, um,
5:03
ligaments in the tarsal sinus, um,
5:05
and possibly sinus tarsi syndrome.
5:09
So we talked about how, um, the interosseous tail
5:13
of calcan ligament should be more medial, um,
5:16
and the cervical ligament should be more lateral.
5:18
Here I think it's challenging
5:20
to actually identify the ligaments, um,
5:22
because we've lost that normal, um, space, uh,
5:26
in the taral sinus,
5:28
and then the fat in the tarsal sinus itself looks, um,
5:32
fibrosed and emus.
5:34
Um, so challenging to see the ligaments,
5:36
but those findings are compatible with sinus tarsi syndrome.
5:42
And then finally, um, as if that wasn't enough, in addition
5:45
to the lateral tail calcan impingement, um, much like
5:49
that calcaneal fracture that I showed you earlier,
5:52
the mel alignment here is leading to some narrowing, um, of
5:56
that space between the calcaneus and the distal fibula.
6:00
So there's also a component
6:02
of sub fibrillary impingement here.
6:05
Um, and I had one case of turf toe, but Dr.
6:07
Chung's cases were much more, uh, interesting than mine.
6:12
So I think I'll stop there.