Joint stiffness 4 months after ankle surgery is a common manifestation, especially in the early stage of recovery when the activity is just started, mainly because of the adhesion of the soft tissues around the joint as well as the atrophy of the surrounding tendons and ligaments.
1. Periarticular soft tissue adhesion: during the recovery period, because of local edema, bleeding, inflammation and other reasons, it is easy to cause periarticular soft tissue adhesion, which will cause activity limitation and joint stiffness during the early activities.
2. Atrophy of surrounding tendons and ligaments: During the whole recovery process, because the joints are in a fixed state, with little activity, the lack of exercise for a long time will cause wasting atrophy, resulting in stiffness of joint activities.
Joint stiffness will be gradually relieved during the gradual resumption of exercise, and persistent failure to improve requires medical observation and standardized treatment under the guidance of clinicians.