Minimally Invasive Foot Surgery: A Faster, Less Painful Solution for Foot Pain
Nov 13, 2024
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Foot pain is a broad term, covering everything from the tips of your toes to the back of your heels. Diagnosis is very often a Q&A of “Where does it hurt?” “How does it feel?” “When is the pain worse?”
Our team of providers at NYC Foot & Ankle Center, in the Manhattan Valley neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, diagnoses a wide range of foot pain problems. While we always start with conservative treatments, sometimes minimally invasive surgery is the optimal solution. Here’s why.
There are dozens of foot conditions that can cause pain. Some affect the soft tissues, some the bones, and others the nerves. Pain may stem from an acute or overuse injury or be a symptom of another condition.
Here, we describe a number of common foot conditions that lead to pain and how they’re diagnosed and treated, including when it’s appropriate to consider a surgical solution.
Morton’s neuroma is inflammation that occurs on a nerve in your foot. Specifically, it’s an enlargement in the nerves between the metatarsal bones connecting your foot to your third and fourth toes.
If you have a Morton’s neuroma, the affected nerve becomes thickened and swollen, making it painful and difficult to walk. You feel the pain in the ball of your foot, between your toes. A classic symptom is feeling like there’s a pebble or a marble in your shoe.
Getting treatment for Morton’s neuroma is important, as it can become larger and cause permanent nerve damage if it’s not treated.
Morton’s neuroma is often addressed with orthotic devices (shoe inserts) to take the pressure off the ball of your foot, anti-inflammatory medications and pain relievers, icing, and corticosteroid injections.
Your doctor might recommend minimally invasive neuroma surgery if your symptoms persist or affect your mobility. All techniques remove or destroy part of the affected nerve to provide lasting pain relief, and since it’s minimally invasive, you heal faster and with less pain from the procedure than with other techniques.
Bunions are a deformity of the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint at the base of your toe, where your foot bone meets your first toe bone. Under stress, such as wearing shoes that are too tight in the toe box, your bones shift out of alignment, producing a large, bony bump at the base of your toe.
Your big toe might also angle outward toward your other toes, sometimes slipping under your second toe, further deforming your foot.
The deformity may cause little to no symptoms or you may have persistent pain and stiffness in your toe that prevents you from walking normally. The change in gait mechanics may then cause pain in your legs, hips, and even your lower back.
Treatment usually consists of orthotics, anti-inflammatory medications, icing, physical therapy, and/or steroid injections in your joint.
If surgery is required, our team offers a minimally invasive option called arthroscopy. It uses small incisions and a camera to visualize the problem and treat all aspects of your bunion.
We also use laser surgery, an advanced technology that offers precise bunion correction. It minimizes tissue damage and promotes faster recovery.
Hammertoes are a deformity of the second, third, or fourth toes, where your middle joint moves out of alignment and upward, making your toe look a bit like a hammer. It can lead to pain, joint rigidity, and chafing on the top of your toe joint from your shoes.
Our team might recommend minimally invasive surgery if your hammertoe pain is severe, interferes with your routine, or prevents you from walking normally. During the surgery, your doctor realigns your toe joint and inserts a small, steel rod to correct your toe’s position.
A stress fracture is a small crack in a bone. They’re exactly what their name indicates — fractures that occur when something puts too much stress on your bone. These are overuse injuries that form when you repetitively use the same part of your body.
Any repetitive motion that presses on your bones can cause a stress fracture. Playing a sport or doing physical work are common causes.
Your doctor might suggest surgery if the fracture doesn’t heal as it should or if you’re experiencing severe symptoms like pain in your hip. The procedure is called an internal fixation. Our team puts pins, screws, or metal plates into your bone to hold it together while it heals.
Want to learn more about how minimally invasive foot surgery can heal your foot pain quickly and with less pain than traditional techniques? Contact our office today to schedule a consultation. You can call us or utilize our online booking tool.