Surgical procedures are often needed when hammertoes become badly bent and start to create constant pain and discomfort, especially whenever you try to wear shoes. Painful, oozing corns and broken, red blisters often develop on the top of badly bent hammertoes, neither of which our podiatrists at Your Next Step want you to experience!

When conservative methods fail to provide relief, surgery can be used to straighten out the toe by aligning the joints and improving the function of the tendons that connect the toe to the nearby muscles.

Some of the methods of hammertoe surgery include:

• Fusion—Is this type of surgery, removal of the disfigured joint is followed by fusing the ends together. Ligaments and tendons may need to be relocated from another part of the toe.
• Joint resection—Completely rigid hammertoes will have the end of the joint excised and reattached with hardware into the straight position.

Recovery from hammertoe surgery:

Hammertoe surgery can usually be performed on an outpatient basis. After the initial healing period of several weeks or more, you can coordinate a slowly integrated physical therapy program with your foot doctor to optimize the treatment.

If you are experiencing complications with a badly bent hammertoe, contact your foot care professional for the best treatment. The foot doctors at Your Next Step are dedicated to improving your foot health and treat a variety of podiatric issues. Toe deformities, sports injuries, joint pain, nail fungus, and chronic tendon pain are all common problems podiatrists Dr. Eric Ricefield, Dr. Mark Yagodich, and Dr. Aliza V. Eisen treat. They provide high-quality foot and ankle care to patients in the greater Philadelphia area at our offices conveniently located in Ardmore, Paoli, Woodlyn, and Downingtown, PA. Contact us for more information or to schedule an appointment.