Surgery can help to correct a clear and present issue, but when an area is surgically fixed or altered, it can have a ripple effect on other structures. Some people believe that the foot experiences that ripple effect after minimally invasive bunion correction, as some orthopedic specialists suggest that the corrective procedure could increase a person’s risk of flatfoot. Recently, a group of researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City put that theory to the test, and they shared their results at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting.
Some specialists theorized that when the bunion correction is performed with minimally invasive techniques, the foot may not be stabilized in the same way that it would if a traditional open procedure was used. When someone is already dealing with a flatfoot deformity, even if it is asymptomatic, minimally invasive bunion correction may address the bunion but fail to stabilize the foot, making it more likely that the flatfoot condition worsens or becomes symptomatic.
Bunion Surgery And Flatfoot Symptoms
Researchers put those theories to the test and conducted a retrospective study using a patient registry at HSS. They identified 35 patients with asymptomatic flatfoot and 47 patients without flatfoot who had all undergone minimally invasive bunion surgery. After conducting patient surveys about their function, pain and overall health, pre- and post-op x-rays to assess the bunion and flatfoot-related measurements, researchers found that correcting the bunion with minimally invasive techniques caused no changes to a patient’s flatfoot dimensions. In fact, of the three measurements taken to assess flatfoot formation, two measures didn’t show any significant changes, but one measurement (talonavicular coverage angle) actually improved following minimally invasive bunion surgery.
“Our research shows that you can fix the bunion with this comparatively easier procedure and not make the flatfoot worse,” said Anne Johnson, M.D, a foot and ankle surgeon at HSS and senior author on the study. “It proves that minimally invasive bunion correction is a viable option for patients with flatfoot.”
Foot and ankle surgeons need to be aware of all the ways a surgical procedure can affect an individual so that all aspects can be addressed as best as possible during an operation. There’s no point in correcting one problem if it’s going to cause one or more problems to develop down the road. It’s great that researchers wanted to confirm that patients with flatfoot weren’t risking a future foot problem if they decided to have their bunion corrected using minimally invasive techniques.