How Effective Is Foot Reconstruction?

Your feet take you far throughout your life — on average, about 100,000 miles — but they also take a beating. If you’ve suffered a traumatic foot injury or have pain and problems caused by a health condition or foot deformity, reconstructive foot surgery may be your best option. 

The expert team of podiatrists at Premier Foot & Ankle, with nine Texas locations, is known for their warm approach and consistent concern for solving your unique foot health issues. You’re never “just a number” at our practice, and whatever treatment you receive, your plan is carefully considered. 

Reconstructive foot surgery is tailored to you

When your podiatrist determines that reconstructive foot surgery is the solution to your foot pain or mobility challenges, it’s because the procedure can resolve significant foot problems, including:

• Repair connective tissue problems, either by removal or grafting 
• Restore the torn skin on your foot due to trauma
• Realign your foot joint
• Fix foot bone breaks by placing therapeutic pins, rods, or plates in affected bones
• Improve your foot’s appearance
• Perform partial or complete joint replacement

Fortunately, our talented podiatric surgeons are highly skilled at performing foot reconstructive surgery using the most advanced techniques available. The practice is so well-respected that it has grown into a nine-office network. 

What conditions require foot reconstructive surgery?

Foot reconstruction addresses numerous painful foot conditions that are — or can become — life-altering. 

1. Foot trauma

Your surgeon has many tools at their disposal to put your foot back together again if you’ve sustained significant injury due to an accident or sports injury. You can even develop an injury from wearing ill-fitting shoes for a long period.

2. Bunions 

These foot deformities emerge on the joint of your big toe, and often become red, swollen, and painful. To rectify a bunion, your surgeon realigns your bone, correctly positions tendons, muscles, and ligaments in your foot, fuses your joint, or replaces it. 

3. Hammertoe

This condition sees your middle toe joints stiffen and become permanently bent. Hammertoe is progressive and gets painful. Your surgeon uses hardware to straighten your affected toes and mitigate your discomfort. 

4. Birth defects of the foot

Reconstructive surgery corrects many foot defects that a baby might be born with. One of the most common is clubfoot, where your foot and ankle are twisted, with the sole of your foot pointing inward. 

Reconstructive surgery corrects clubfoot by releasing (cutting) or lengthening tendons and righting your foot’s orientation. Often your foot is stabilized by the placement of temporary pins while your foot heals in a cast. 

We’re proud to offer pediatric reconstructive foot surgery for problems like this as well.

5. Heel spurs

Heel spurs are caused by calcium deposits that lead to the development of hard protrusions on your heel. Heel spurs are painful when they become inflamed, and the pain can either be periodic or constant. 

Reconstruction may include your surgeon removing the spur or releasing your plantar fascia, the thick ligament that connects your heel to your toes. 

6. Arthritis

Arthritis is a wear-and-tear condition, and over time, your foot joints degenerate and cause pain and mobility problems. 

Reconstructive surgery for arthritis includes arthroscopic debridement, where your surgeon clears away bone spurs or problematic cartilage and tissue in the area of your joint, arthrodesis (bone fusion), arthroscopy, or complete joint replacement.

7. Foot tumors

These include melanomas and bone or soft tissue tumors that your surgeon can remove. 

8. Foot ulcers in diabetics

These wounds can lead to amputation. Surgeons remove dead or infected tissue (debridement) to lower your risk for or prevent more serious foot problems. 

9. Flat feet

Sometimes flat feet don’t cause problems, but if you develop trouble moving, bad pain that treatment like orthotics don’t help, and extreme stiffness, your surgeon can make your foot function better by repairing the tendons that support your feet. 

10. Other foot problems

Foot reconstructive surgery also addresses vascular problems in your foot, and ruptures of the tendons and ligaments. 

When more conservative treatments don’t eliminate pain and mobility limitations, your doctor assesses surgical options, which are quite successful. Whenever possible, the Premier Foot & Ankle podiatric surgeons perform minimally invasive surgery, which requires just one or two small incisions and is associated with faster healing and less bleeding, scarring, and pain. 

Foot reconstruction has many applications, and our experts always find the best solution for you. Call the Premier Foot & Ankle office most convenient to you to schedule an appointment to discuss foot reconstruction, or request an appointment online today.