Soft Tissue Pathology.

A wide spectrum of pathologies can lead to soft tissue abnormalities within the ankle joint. Many of these disorders can develop into irreversible joint degeneration if left untreated. Arthroscopy is frequently used to treat these soft tissue conditions such as instability, synovitis, impingement, arthrofibrosis, and other inflammatory disorders in the rearfoot and ankle. In general, the etiology of these ankle soft tissue disorders can be classified as traumatic, inflammatory, and congenital/neoplastic. Overall, the goal of diagnosing and treating soft tissue pathologies of the ankle is to restore anatomic and physiologic motion, reduce pain, optimize functional return to activity, and decrease the chance of recurrence while minimizing complications.

Podiatric Medicine and Surgery Resident-Authored Publications in The Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery: A Systematic Review.

Since its introduction into the medical community, the Podiatric Medicine and Surgery residency has strived to graduate the most advanced and learned foot and ankle surgeons. From increasing length of training, to assuring didactics and education are sufficiently incorporated into the residency, the Council on Podiatric Medical Education has overseen this transition. One area of interest, podiatric medicine and research, remains central to this training and contributes to the field of foot and ankle surgery through journal publications. The purpose of this review was to identify Podiatric Medicine and Surgery resident-authored publication rates, trends, and geographic distribution. All published case reports, original research articles, review articles, and tips, quips, and pearls in The Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery from January 2009 to December 2018 were reviewed. Podiatric Medicine and Surgery residents comprised 8% of all authors. Residents contributed to and published as first authors in 22% and 11% of all manuscripts, respectively. An increasing trend in resident authors, resident-authored manuscripts, and resident-first-authored manuscripts was observed. From before the mandated 3-year residency to after, the proportion of resident-authored manuscripts to all manuscripts declined from 9.99% to 7.21%; however, among these resident-authored publications, the rate of first-authorship increased from 45.32% to 51.36%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first and only study to examine publication rates among foot and ankle surgery residents.