Full Return to Sport in All Athletes After Suture-Button Fixation for Syndesmotic Injuries; However, Faster Recovery Was Seen in National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Players Compared with National Football League Players.

PURPOSE: To determine the return-to-sport (RTS) rate and time to RTS for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football players and National Football League (NFL) players after suture-button fixation for the treatment of unstable tibiofibular syndesmotic injuries and to identify possible risk factors associated with a delay in RTS.

METHODS

NCAA and NFL players who underwent suture-button fixation for an isolated syndesmotic ankle injury between 2017 and 2023 were evaluated. All player information and data were retrieved from publicly available internet sources. The following information was gathered on each player's career; NFL participation, number of seasons played before and after surgery, number of games played before and after surgery, and time between surgery and RTS. RTS was defined as the time until the first game after syndesmotic suture-button fixation.

RESULTS

Seven NCAA and fourteen NFL players (21 ankles) were included. The mean age at surgery was 24.90 ± 4.66 years (range, 18-34 years). One hundred percent of patients were able to RTS at their level of sport. The mean time between surgery and the first game played was 139.4 ± 123.6 days (range, 12-427 days). Players played in 23.48 ± 21.9 games (range, 3-72 games) after surgery. NCAA players were able to RTS significantly earlier than NFL players (39.0 ± 20.4 days vs 189.6 ± 123.2 days, P = .005, with P < .05 denoting significance). There was no significant difference in workload after surgery for both NCAA and NFL players.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, we found that athletes, regardless of whether they were NCAA or NFL players, were able to successfully return to their level of sport after ankle surgery. Whereas NCAA players returned to play significantly faster, both groups were able to achieve similar performance levels postoperatively in terms of the number of games played.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, retrospective cohort study.