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CME expires August 1, 2029

Master the fundamentals of arthroscopy and elevate your practice.

Scoped! Arthroscopy Fundamentals of the Foot and Ankle is a technique-focused learning series designed to improve safety, efficiency, and reproducibility in everyday arthroscopic practice. This foot and ankle course focuses on the decisions that most directly affect outcomes (patient positioning and operating room setup, anesthesia coordination, portal planning, visualization control, and systematic diagnostic surveys) and applies those fundamentals to common, high-yield ankle and hindfoot procedures. Each lesson emphasizes practical do-this-next workflows, neurovascular risk mitigation, dynamic assessment, intraoperative troubleshooting, and standardized documentation that supports consistent execution across cases and teams. 

What You'll Learn

• How to build a defensible ankle arthroscopy or hindfoot endoscopy plan that aligns patient selection, patient positioning, operating room setup, portal strategy, and anticipated pathology
• How to coordinate anesthesia, tourniquet use, distraction, and fluid management to support visualization, safety, and postoperative analgesia
• How to establish anterior and posterior portals via reliable surface landmarks, needle localization, blunt dissection, and controlled instrument trajectories
• How to perform systematic diagnostic ankle and hindfoot surveys that identify intra-articular, extra-articular, chondral, osseous, and tendon pathology
• How to execute stepwise, reproducible approaches to anterior ankle impingement, osteochondral lesions of the talus, os trigonum syndrome, and peroneal tendon pathology
• How to perform a dynamic examination to confirm impingement, tendon instability, flexor hallucis longus excursion, and adequate decompression or débridement
• How to anticipate complications, recognize escalation or conversion triggers, and apply postoperative protocols that reflect the procedure performed and concomitant pathology

What's Included

• Video-integrated lessons across foot and ankle arthroscopy
• Structured content with learning objectives, technique workflows, pearls/pitfalls, and safety checkpoints
• A comprehensive Knowledge Check examination at the end of the course, with board-style multiple-choice questions
• Supplemental resources and references, including links to related JAAOS articles, Orthopaedic Video Theater (OVT) videos, and AAOS book chapters

Editor

Kelly Hynes, MD, FAAOS

Learning Objectives

• Select appropriate candidates for ankle arthroscopy, posterior hindfoot endoscopy, and endoscopic peroneal tendon procedures, including identifying circumstances in which open surgical management, additional imaging, or referral is more appropriate
• Choose and justify patient positioning and operating room setup based on the planned anterior, posterior, or lateral approach, including padding, tourniquet strategy, limb access, distraction needs, fluoroscopic access, and conversion planning
• Coordinate an anesthesia and perioperative pain management plan that supports intraoperative examination, visualization, patient safety, and postoperative recovery
• Plan and establish anterior ankle, posterior hindfoot, and peroneal tendon portals via reliable landmarks, needle localization, blunt dissection, and trajectory control to minimize neurovascular and tendon injury
• Maintain stable visualization by managing inflow and outflow, pump pressure, suction, hemostasis, soft-tissue clearance, and distraction, as well as by applying a structured approach to troubleshoot poor visualization
• Perform systematic diagnostic surveys of the ankle and hindfoot and adapt the surgical plan in real time based on chondral findings, impinging structures, tendon pathology, instability, loose bodies, and dynamic assessment
• Mitigate complications by recognizing unsafe trajectories, uncertain anatomy, inadequate visualization, residual impingement, tendon instability, and other escalation triggers, as well as by making timely adjustments, converting, or aborting if necessary
• Standardize documentation and postoperative planning, including surgical findings, procedures performed, dynamic confirmation, imaging studies obtained, concomitant pathology, weight-bearing restrictions, rehabilitation milestones, and return-to-activity criteria

Earn up to 5 AMA PRA Category 1 CME credits™.