Is there a early surgery for flat feet that will help prevent major surgery later?

JayCon3

Hi:
I had a Triple Arthrodesis at age 13 due to a rigid flat [left] foot that would become useless without one.
I'm going to have a Calcaneal Osteotomy/Lateral Column Lengthening/1st Metetarsal Osteotomy on the right foot Nov 5th.
However I originally had that same mind set in that "Why not just fix it all NOW rather than later" and my surgeon explained it to me this way.

A Triple at my age [47] with a NON rigid flat foot would be overkill. Yes it would prevent the need for future surgery because it would basically eliminate all of the ares that are problematic with a flat foot. When it's fused it's done. Now with that said there are STILL problems that can arise years later that may not be able to be repaired BECAUSE the T.A. was done already. So he suggested to me the procedures I'm having now which as I understand have a really good success rate and are far less invasive. In the future then, if other issues arise a Triple would be the solution.

My suggestion would be to look at the surgical options that are less invasive if possible especially since she is in her 20's.

Hope this helps!

Joe

sunny77

There are a number of different procedures that can be done to help with flat feet, but most of them are pretty extensive/major. Usually you go through the conservative treatments first...orthotics, meds, PT, boot, being NWB, etc. If those all fail and the foot is continuing to feel worse, then surgery is the next step. Choosing to do surgery or not depends on what is going on and what the surgeon thinks. If her quality of life is impaired because she is in pain or is limited as a result of her feet, then other treatments and/or surgery would probably be helpful. If it's done earlier rather than later, maybe a tendon transfer wouldn't have to be done (the tendon might be in better shape and just need to be repaired), but likely some sort of osteotomy would be involved; if the osteotomy isn't done as well as the soft tissue work, you end up going back for more surgery later because your foot will eventually fail again. The osteotomy is hopefully the more permanent solution. Anyway...if she's having more pain and issues, she should be seen and evaluated further to see what might be helpful if the inserts aren't.

marybn

Thanks for the info. She did just get a new pair of insert so she will have to see how that works out for her. I told her not to rush into any surgery . . . who knows what advances will come in years to come before it starts to limit her activity.