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Should Surgeons Recommend Vitamins Before Surgery?
Surgeons understand the science behind healing. Nutritional building blocks are necessary to rebuild and repair surgically traumatized tissue. As the surgeon, what do you to ensure your patients are nutritionally maximized at the time of surgery to have the best chance for an optimal recovery?
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Should Cigarettes Include A Graphic Warning Label Highlighting Smoking-Related Foot Amputations?
This week the Food and Drug Administration released nine graphic warning labels to appear on cigarette packs.1 This is a strong message to deter people from smoking by illustrating a variety of related health hazards. The nine warnings did not include any imagery indicating that smoking can lead to foot and lower limb amputations.
Podiatrists, vascular surgeons and orthopedists know that smoking can lead to several serious problems in the lower extremity. Some of these problems include wound healing difficulties, gangrene, non-unions and amputations.
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How To Properly Align A Lapidus Bunionectomy In The Frontal Plane
Surgeons performing the Lapidus bunionectomy often consider the sagittal and frontal plane position of the first metatarsal bone. However, surgeons place less attention on the frontal plane position. It’s not that surgeons do not consider frontal plane position but it is a more subtle technical aspect of the procedure that has not been discussed much in the literature.
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Should Podiatrists Embrace Barefoot Running?
Hey, Doc, what is your position on barefoot/minimalist running?
Unless you practice under a rock, then it is likely that you have noticed more and more people getting involved in the barefoot running movement. You do not have to be a sports medicine focused podiatrist to have treated patients who have tried minimalist running. Chances are that these particular patients are seeking your medical advice to a treat a foot problem "related" to this method of running. Perhaps you have treated patients who have developed plantar fasciitis, cuts and blisters, or perhaps even stress fractures.
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Tarsal Coalition And Restoration Of Rearfoot Motion: Miracle Or Myth?
It is generally understood that the surgical excision of a tarsal coalition will restore motion to the rearfoot and a painful tarsal coalition is an indication to do surgery.
However, what does it really mean to “restore motion”? Once this motion is restored, does this once rigid foot now function as a flexible foot?
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What You Should Know About The ‘Lisfranc Fracture Equivalent’
I would like to use this blog to introduce a term/condition: the “Lisfranc fracture equivalent.”
This new term identifies a patient who has a subtle ligamentous Lisfranc injury that is radiographically aligned within the midfoot keystone. This patient also has the uncommon stigmata of a Lisfranc fracture dislocation, which include: non-first interspace fleck fractures of the tarsometatarsal joints; lesser metatarsal neck fractures (often oblique); and/or a non-displaced cuboid injury/nutcracker fracture.
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Key Insights On Revision Tarsal Coalition Surgery In Children And Adolescents
Revision tarsal coalition surgery is indeed more complex than primary tarsal coalition surgery. When simple resection has failed, there needs to be more diagnostic effort to identify the cause of recurrent pain. There is a general thought that the coalition itself is the cause of pain. However, it is the secondary effects that the coalition has on the foot that result in the pain cascade. This becomes evident when simple resection does not resolve the patient’s symptoms, warranting the first surgery.
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Is Cheilectomy An Option For End-Stage Hallux Rigidus?
Foot surgeons are well aware of the various surgical procedures that address the various stages of degeneration of the big toe joint. As the severity of arthritis becomes more involved, so do the surgical interventions.
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Understanding The Relationship Of Clubtoe To Clubfoot
Clubtoe is a term that I use to describe the big toe equinus deformity that one encounters with adolescent and adult clubfoot. It is a condition of “significant” hallux plantarflexion due to a severely rigid elevated first ray. In milder cases, the hallux will plantarflex at the metatarsophalangeal joint (MPJ) and mildly extend at the hallux interphalangeal joint (IPJ).
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Fixation Of The Medial Malleolus Fracture: What You Should Know
Those with experience in the surgical treatment of ankle fractures often consider the medial malleolus fracture a relatively straightforward fracture to repair. Most commonly, surgeons use two screws to fixate the fracture and it is a short procedure in terms of operative time.
The surgery is often so predictable that the surgeon may go into “auto pilot” mode (more appropriately termed “auto surgeon” mode). However, there is some fracture variability that occurs and it is important for the surgeon to slow down and choose the best fixation for the fracture pattern.
