Toronto podiatrist Sheldon Nadal D.P.M. lectures on Tailor's Bunions or Bunionettes at international foot surgery conference

This is a continuation of a previous blog Toronto podiatrist lectures at international foot surgery conference in Cleveland Ohio.

On Thursday June 21 2012 I made the five minute walk over to the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine from our hotel in Independence Ohio where I was scheduled to lecture on minimally invasive surgical treatment for Tailors' Bunions or Bunionettes, as well as  Minimally Invasive Surgery for Bunions.

My first lecture that afternoon was on how I treat tailors' bunions or bunionettes in my Toronto podiatry office.

A bunionette or tailor's bunion is a bony enlargement at the head of the fiffth metatarsal which is the bone just behind the baby toe. as opposed to a bunion , which is an enlagement of the first metatarsal, just behind the big toe. It is generally due to a splaying of the fifth metatarsal or a separating of the fifth metatarsal away from the fourth metatarsal. This causes the foot to be wider and makes shoe fitting difficult due to pressure from the shoe against the prominent fifth metatarsal head (knuckle). People with bunionettes also often have bunions on the same foot due to splaying of the first metatarsal.

Non surgical treatment for buionettes include wide, comfortable shoes, orthotics to reduce the splaying, as well as physiotherapy and antiinflammatory medication to reduce pain and swelling.These treatments can make you more comfortable but will usually not get rid of the deformity.

The only way of acheiving permanent correction of tailors' bunions is with surgery. In the old days this meant hospitalization, general anesthesia,, long incisions in the skin and soft tissues, long scars and considerable pain swelling and disability.

However, as I explained in my lecture, this does not have to be the case. Thanks to podiatrists who developed Minimally Invasive Foot Surgery, this work can be done with local anethesia, in an office, using specialized instruments which allow us to work through very small openings in the skin. This results in far less tissue trauma which means much less pain, much less swelling and a quicker return to normal activities and no expensive hospital stays.

I am pleaseed to say that my lecture was well received by the audience which inclued podiatrists and orthopedic surgeons from Canada, The United States, Latin America and Australia.

If you or a loved one suffers from Tailors' Bunions or Bunionettes, or a bunion, or any other painful foot condition, please call my office at 416-486-9917 for a private consultation in my Toronto foot clinic so that you can find out how you can walk without pain.