Do bunions come back after bunion surgery?

Yesterday morning, a very lovely 65 year old lady came to my Toronto podiatrist office, from King City Ontario, to have minimally invasive surgery for her left bunion.

I had the pleasure of performing bunion surgery on her right foot 24 years ago.  Here is a Polaroid picture, taken 24 years ago, of her right foot.  Notice the bunion deformity.  The pen marks are landmarks that I draw on the foot prior to surgery.

Here is what her right foot looks like today. As you can see the bunion has not returned.  This, of course does not guarantee that your bunion will not return if you have foot surgery. However, when the correct procedure is performed, it is my experience that the vast majority of bunions will not come back.

The key is that it is not enough to just remove the bump. The first metatarsal bone, which is the long bone behind the big toe and has drifted away from the second metatarsal, must be made straighter.  This is usually done by performing an osteotomy (cutting through the bone), repositioning the metatarsal and holding the bone in the corrected position for approximately six weeks.  This can be with minimally invasive foot surgery.

I do this work with local anesthetic.  As the name suggests, podiatrists work through very small openings in the skin with specialized instrumentation.  This results in less soft tissue trauma and usually considerably less pain, swelling and disability compared to conventional foot surgery performed in the hospital with hammers, chisels and saws.

My patients may begin to walk immediately and rarely require casts, crutches or strong pain medication.

If you or a loved one suffer from bunions or any other foot problems, please contact my office at 416-486-9917. My staff will be happy to set up a private consultation for you so that you can find out how you can walk away from bunions.