New procedure can ease pain from ankle arthritis without limiting the ankle's mobility

It's a surgery that is becoming increasingly more common. Ankle replacements usually are needed because of a bad accident or arthritis. But artificial ankles have come a long way and not all of them are the same.  David Sander believes he is a walking medical marvel.

"It's really a miracle," says Sanders.

The miracle is that he's walking at all after he slipped on an icy city sidewalk in the middle of winter.

"I lifted up my leg and my foot was backwards, and I said to myself, 'Oh my God,'"  says Sander

After his initial surgery David knew it would eventually come to a replacement, his cartilage was gone leaving him with painful, debilitating arthritis. But he worried because failure rates were high for artificial ankles.

"When you're reaching that percentage of failure, you're really taking a risk," says Sander

Now David's new ankle is a step up from earlier versions.

"The bone is going to be loaded along a curved surface, the curved surface of the bone just as a normal ankle is loaded,"  says Dr. Jonathan Deland of the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Deland helped design what is now the version that most mimics what comes naturally. Deland says past replacement ankles were flat creating a rigid effect when walking. The curved replacement results in a wider range of motion.

"That is nicely fixed to bone, in good alignment, and functioning like a normal ankle," says Sander.

One that means David can once again, take long walks on the beach, play with Zack, and even get down in his garden again.

David says his recovery time was a miracle too. he had the operation last year. The former marathon runner was back on his feet in seven weeks and has been going strong ever since.