I broke my ankle about three years ago in a car accident. I followed all of the doctor's instructions as my ankle healed, but something didn't heal quite right. Two and a half years later, I was still having severe pain and my doctor couldn't figure out why. He suggested that I see a podiatrist to have it looked at more closely. It turns out that there is a lot more to an ankle injury than I had known. Scroll through my site to find out what can really happen to your ankle when it is broken and what could cause the pain to continue long after the injury is sustained.
If you have a severe case of hammertoe, you might be considering surgical treatment. You should ask a foot surgeon any questions you may have about surgical treatment to make sure you're properly informed.
Unfortunately, there is some misinformation out there about treating hammertoe with surgery. The following are six things you shouldn't assume about surgical treatment for hammertoe.
You'll still have to deal with pain and discomfort after recovering from surgery.
Surgical treatment for hammertoe has the potential to completely end the pain and discomfort of the condition for you. While it's possible that you'll still have some discomfort issues after surgery, it's likely that your discomfort will completely come to an end after you have recovered from surgery.
Your hammertoe will definitely reoccur in the future after surgery.
It's not very common for hammertoe to reoccur in patients who have undergone surgical treatment for the condition. While it's possible for patients to experience a reoccurrence of the condition down the road, your chances of having this happen are probably fairly low.
There is always a non-surgical treatment method that will be successful.
Although there are many non-surgical treatment options for hammertoe, those with particularly severe cases of the condition might not be cured through any non-surgical treatment. If your podiatrist and foot surgeon tell you that surgery seems to be your only option, it's best to listen to them and undergo surgical treatment.
Surgical treatment for hammertoe is always very invasive.
These days, there are many minimally invasive surgery options for treating hammertoe. For example, a tenotomy is a minimally invasive surgical treatment for hammertoe. This surgical treatment involves cutting into a tendon in the foot rather than the bone.
You have to be knocked out during any surgical procedure that treats hammertoe.
You might be surprised to learn that it's not necessary to be administered general aesthesia and knocked unconscious for minimally invasive surgical treatments for hammertoe.
Some types of minimally invasive hammertoe surgery can be carried out with the patient only being administered a local anesthetic and remaining conscious the entire time. This is good to know for patients who don't like the idea of being knocked unconscious by general aesthesia.
You won't be able to engage in basic activities like walking and driving for a long time after surgery.
You might need to go through a long recuperation period for certain types of surgical treatment for hammertoe. However, the recovery period is very short for some minimally invasive treatment options. You might even be able to walk and drive right away after surgery in some cases.
Share2 March 2023
