Patients With Chronic Foot and Ankle Conditions Experience Significant Improvements in Sleep Quality Following Surgical Intervention

Abstract

Background

Poor sleep quality is associated with metabolic dysregulation and impaired healing. The purpose of the current study was to quantify the prevalence of poor sleep in patients with atraumatic foot and ankle (F&A) conditions and determine whether surgical treatment is associated with sleep quality improvement.

Methods

Patients scheduled for surgical management of atraumatic F&A conditions were enrolled by 4 fellowship-trained orthopaedic F&A surgeons between May 2018 and April 2019. Patients completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) pre- and postoperatively. The PSQI ranges from 0 to 21, with a score ≥5 indicative of poor sleep quality. Patients also reported their perception of how their current F&A pain influenced their sleep quality on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 indicated no influence and 10 indicated a strong influence (pain perception score [PPS]). Patients with known sleep disorders, acute surgical trauma, and infection were excluded.

Results

A total of 115 patients were enrolled. The mean preoperative PSQI and PPS were 8.1 ± 3.6 (range, 2-19) and 3.1 ± 2.7 (range, 0-10), respectively. Overall, 86.1% of patients had poor sleep quality (PSQI score ≥5). Similarly, 64.3% of patients had a PPS ≥1, indicating the belief that F&A pain contributed to sleep disturbance. A minimum of 6 months of follow-up was collected for 72 (62.6%) patients. On average, these 72 patients experienced significant improvements in sleep quality (mean PSQI decreased from 7.8 ± 3.2 to 5.4 ± 3.1, P < .001). Of these patients, 59.7% continued to experience poor sleep quality (PSQI ≥5), and 55.6% perceived that F&A pain contributed to sleep disturbance (PPS ≥1).

Conclusion

In this series, 86.1% of patients presenting for management of atraumatic F&A conditions had poor sleep quality at the time of their initial visit, with 64.3% perceiving their F&A conditions to influence their sleep quality. Improvements in sleep quality were observed at 6 months postoperatively, though over half of patients continued to experience poor sleep quality. The location of pathology and procedure performed was not associated with sleep quality.

Levels of Evidence

Level IV: Prospective case series