Rheumatoid arthritis: This is an auto-immune disease in which the body’s immune system (the body’s way of fighting infections) attacks healthy joints, tissues, and organs. It can cause pain, stiffness, swelling, and loss of function in joints. Rheumatoid arthritis affects mostly small joints of the foot and tends to be bilateral.

Other less common causes of Ankle arthritis are osteonecrosis, neuropathic arthritis, septic arthritis (joint infection), gout and Haemophilia.

Symptoms of ankle arthritis include pain or tenderness at the front of the ankle, swelling, stiffness in the joint and limited range of motion. The latter is mostly noticeable when walking up or downhill, or when trying to perform a leg squat.

The diagnosis is made with a medical history, physical examination and X-rays of the affected joint. A bone scan, computed tomography (CT) scans with or without contrast and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans are also performed to diagnose arthritis.

The initial treatment consists of non-surgical options with lifestyle modifications, analgesics, orthotics, weight loss, physiotherapy and braces to support the joint. If this fails, an injection in the joint may be proposed to mitigate the pain. However, this is offered case by case depending on the severity of the symptoms and the images.

Surgery may be required to treat ankle arthritis if your symptoms do not improve with conservative measures. Options are ankle arthroscopy, ankle fusion (locking the shinbone and the ankle bone) or ankle replacement (replacing the bottom and top parts of the joint with an artificial implant).