Review Question - QID 218637

A 50-year-old vintner presents to the clinic with three years of foot and ankle pain preventing him from being able to walk his vineyards to inspect his grapes without constant pain. He states he fell from one of his storage tanks directly onto his heels nearly five years ago and sustained a fracture of his "heel bone" that he did not want to be repaired. You inform him that he has subtalar arthritis with a calcaneal height that is shorter than the contralateral by > 10mm and would benefit from a subtalar arthrodesis with distraction. Which of the following factors would most influence the surgeon's decision to perform this procedure?