Bunion in diabetes

Bunion condition with diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis

Despite the compromised healing capacity of diabetics and metabolic interference of some medications taken by autoimmune disease patients, syndesmosis - bonding between first and second metatarsals, can form and occur if the patient is still capable of healing skin wounds.

This 50 year old female with rheumatoid arthritis was taking rheumatoid medications and one year after surgery her first metatarsal has been clearly aligned and maintained by a syndesmosis bridge.

Reference information: www.bunioncenter.com

It is not intended as medical advice to any specific person. If you have any need for personal advice or have any questions regarding your health, please consult your Orthopedist for diagnosis and treatment.

Bunion condition with basal spur

 It has always been speculated that the basal bone spurs would block first metatarsal realignment and thus the "break-n-shift" technique would be necessary.

However this theory has never been proven. Dr. Wu's non-bone-breaking syndesmosis procedure has proven otherwise in every case.

Reference information: www.bunioncenter.com

It is not intended as medical advice to any specific person. If you have any need for personal advice or have any questions regarding your health, please consult your Orthopedist for diagnosis and treatment.

Bunion with overlapping toes

A tilting big toe is usually always the product of a tilting first metatarsal. Dr. Wu's non-bone-breaking syndesmosis procedure has proven that breaking the big toe (Akin's procedure) is not required if first metatarsal can be realigned properly and effectively.

Reference information: www.bunioncenter.com

It is not intended as medical advice to any specific person. If you have any need for personal advice or have any questions regarding your health, please consult your Orthopedist for diagnosis and treatment.

Recovery after surgery

Since there is no bone-breaking involved, there is usually relatively little pain and walking is allowed any time after surgery however there can be slightly more pain expected in the first week. Crutches are optional but useful for the first 1 week.

Protective footwear is worn for walking for the first 3 months until syndesmosis bridge formation is mostly completed. During the same period walking is not a problem but needs to be restricted to less than 6,000 steps a day.

Possible Complications

Due to the fact that no bone needs be broken, the non-bone-breaking syndesmosis procedure can fortunately avoid all complications (mal-union, shortening, transfermetatarsalgia) related to bone-breaking bunion surgeries.

The known complications specific to Dr. Wu's non-bone-breaking bunion surgery in the past 1,000 cases were infection (< 0.5%), early partial recurrence (<5%), early complete recurrence (<1%), late recurrence (unknown from 6 months to 20 yrs after surgery), over-correction (<2%), stress fracture (2%), transfer metatarsalgia (0%) and second toe valgus deformity (0.5%).

Reference information: www.bunioncenter.com

It is not intended as medical advice to any specific person. If you have any need for personal advice or have any questions regarding your health, please consult your Orthopedist for diagnosis and treatment.