Re: Hammer toes surgery

[Guest guest]

,

I was completely unconscious during surgery. It was a good decision

for me.

[Guest guest]

I just had hammer toe surgery on my right foot. They've been hammered for as

long as I can remember, so I can't say they're important for balance since I

just don't use them.

In my case, the phalanges (knuckles) were starting to gnarl and deform so the

goal was to stop the deformity from progressing. The surgeon was very up front

about not being able to walk any better or farther than before. It was all about

not getting worse. The toes don't lay perfectly flat, but I can stretch the toe

out to see the nail now.

It's been a pretty easy recovery. I had more phantom pain than real pain. I'm

still healing and hope to be back in shoes this time next week.

O

[Guest guest]

Hello and the Group,

It's been a long time since I have done this. At age 12 I had a " Hammer Toe "

operation that went like this. The pediatric orthopedic surgeon by name of Burr

H. Curtis, he was head orthodoc at the Newington, CT children's hospital,

decided the answer to my problem ( " bones grew too long for the muscles and

tendons " ) was to remove the upper phalange of the small toes. This means that

they cut the toes on top and plucked out the first bone segment forward of the

metatarsal or long bones of thefoot.

The theory was that the outer two bones of the small toes would

retract to the socket laid bare and become functional. That never

happened. The outer two bones of the small toes retracted alright but

ended up 1/2 inch superimposed over the ends of the metatarsals and they have

been that way for 62 years. No amount of pulling and hauling could get the end

result the orthodoc was looking for in his operation.

The loading across the ball of the foot was evened out to some extent, but I

also lost all ability to jump and never became the high school star center

everybody thought my 6'6 " height deserved to be.

The left foot deteriorated further over the years so that I now have two

problems and continually wear an AFO. One is a bunionette that needs to be

trimmed once a month. The other is that the metatarsal structure is so deformed

that some bones protrude in the outer mid foot upper area of the arch and

threaten to ulcerate.

My thoughts on the subject: We probably should have gone in the direction of

lengthening the tendons and muscles on the upper side of the toe structure. My

left big toe looks like a Cobra ready to strike. Positively Egyptian in

appearance. lol

I think in the very long run, it wouldn't have made much difference because of

the eventual weakening of the dorsiflexions. It might have been easier to buy

and use shoes if we had done that.

I can send some pictures if they are of interest. Mind, this all happened in the

late forties!

EdM from NH