| Frequently Asked Questions

Depending on the severity of your hammer toes, will depend on whether they will bend after MIS hammer toe surgery. Toes that are not rigid and arthritic will easily we able to bend after the surgery healing is complete and the swelling has resolved.

Pins and screws are only used in the most severe cases of MIS hammer toe surgery, most commonly the toes are held in corrected position with surgical tape for 4-6 weeks that our staff teaches you to change at home.

If you were able to wear dress shoes prior to the hammer toe causing pain, then yes your problem should be solved after surgery and you should be able to get back into dress shoes in 3 months.

Unlike the open procedure, the scars from MIS hammer toe surgery are barely visible. The incisions are mostly hid between the toes so it hard to even see you had surgery.

The stiffness of the toes and the ability to curl your toes post operatively has more to do with how severe the deformity is and whether stiffening the toes in surgery will help with the correction. The best way to assure getting the most functional motion from your toes is to seek and opinion early and make the correction before the stiffness becomes a problem.

A tailor’s bunion (bunionette) is a prominent bone on the outside of your foot by the fifth toe that causes pain from shoe pressure. It looks red and inflamed when it hurts. The structure is similar to a normal bunion, it is just smaller and on the outside of the foot.

The tailor’s bunion (bunionette) is a completely different surgery than the MIS Bunion surgery for the big toe. The surgery doesn’t use pins or screws, the bone cut heals in the place it is put in the day of surgery. The Tailor’s bunion surgery has much less pain and there is only one small stab incision. Unfortunately, the surgery takes around three months for the swelling to go completely down.

For the first two weeks you are walking in a stiff sole post op shoe. After the stitches are removed, you are encouraged to go into any shoe that you feel is comfortable. Sometimes the fifth toe will be splinted in the office and we will show you how to do it at home

After two weeks the post op shoe given to you on the day of surgery will only need to be worn if you chose. Most patients will advance to sandals, crocks or tennis shoe depending on the weather. You will be able to wear most if not all your shoes after three months.

The pain from open bunion surgery has been compared to some of the most painful major orthopedic surgeries done, the pain from the MIS bunion surgery is usually about a 3/10 but can get as high as 5/10 which is still considered mild for surgery.

The best thing about MIS bunion surgery is that the patient doesn’t need to be off there feet or in cast or boot. The surgery is designed to allow you to walk of the surgery foot immediately. Walking actually helps healing, its just important to ice your foot when not walking throughout the day.

Depending on your job, most patients go back to work after 2 weeks. If your job requires you to be in a normal shoe before going back to work then you will need to wait until your 4 weeks has been completed before going back to work.

Normal walking is encouraged immediately with breaks for icing the foot intermittently. Low impact activities like ellipticals, bike and swimming can be started at 5 weeks, and full impact running or jumping at 8-12 weeks.

The MIS bunion surgery technique has been around since 2011 and all studies have shown the recurrence rate to be very low, close to zero. The open bunion surgery techniques can have recurrence rates as high as 20%.

Arthritis of a joint or joints can come on slowly , it starts as pain when you first get up and then it advances to pain throughout the day. Rest and heat can make it better. Staying off your feet can give you the most relief but that will increase your stiffness and increase your body weight which can make the pain worse when you get back on your feet.

When joints in the foot are severely arthritic there is not much that can be done to make them better. Technology hasn’t come up with good joint implants that can withstand the pressure from day-to-day walking. When a joint gets severely arthritic fusion of the joint is the best option. Since the joint is already stiff fusion the joint doesn’t create any further issues but it does resolve the pain.

MIS fusions of arthritic joints lead to a quicker recovery, higher fusion rates and less scar tissue than there open counterpart. There is a significant decrease in infection rates also with the MIS fusion technique.

Unfortunately, MIS fusion techniques do not increase the recovery due the that it takes 8-12 weeks for any joint to heal regardless of the technique. The MIS advantage is that the complications are much less and once the joint is healed to transition to normal activity is quicker.

Anytime a joint is fused there is increased stiffness of the foot. Depending on the joint that is fused the limitations vary. MIS fusions are note done on joints that are past the option of recovery, if the stiffness is present pos

Most studies on the MIS Achilles heel surgery show that high level athletes return to their full function after the surgery.​