Restoring Your Foot and Ankle Health With Surgery
Patients who have substantial foot problems still won’t always need reconstructive surgery. However, if you have a severe enough ankle or foot fracture, flat feet, ripped ligaments, bunions, or arthritis, it’s possible that you might need a surgical reconstructive procedure. Experts like Dr. Jaymes Granata have handled many cases like this. They can help determine whether or not it’s time for a patient to get surgery.
A Recommendation for Surgery
If you have a wide range of different conditions related to the feet or the ankles, you’ll usually be encouraged to start getting physical therapy as soon as possible. You might also need medication or braces. These treatments can help promote pain relief, making it easier for you to manage different foot or ankle problems.
However, some patients won’t respond effectively to these treatments. It can take time for physical therapy and various medications to work, but some patients might not notice any improvement at all. The right surgical procedures can help many patients much more quickly than many other treatment methods. Different ankle and foot problems will require different surgical procedures.
Ankle and Foot Surgery
The surgeries that relate to the feet and ankles can be complex. For instance, it’s often important for surgeons to fix the ligaments and tendons connected to the damaged areas as part of the overall treatment process.
They might not always be able to focus on fixing the specific problem directly, since they might need to fix related problems first. Some joints might also be misaligned. The patients who are getting bunions treated might have several of these issues, and this could also be the case for the people who have flat feet.
Ligaments will sometimes need to be tightened using stitches in order to repair the structural problems associated with those ligaments. In some cases, the ligaments will need to be replaced entirely. It’s common for surgeons to use tissue from the tendons in order to complete this aspect of the procedure.
Patients who have arthritis might have very different requirements regarding surgery. They might need new artificial joints. Their existing joints also might have to be cleaned and repaired.
Reconstructive surgeries related to the feet and ankles can often be performed very quickly, which should make things easier for patients. You might not have to stay in the hospital overnight. The recovery time associated with the surgery can certainly vary. Some patients might need six months to recover, while other people will be more or less back to normal after only a couple of months. If your case is more complicated, the recovery process might take longer.
Recovering From Surgery
It’s common for patients to need casts and different supports after they get surgery on their feet and ankles. You’ll usually also need appointments with a physical therapist as you’re getting used to your repaired feet. Some patients might take medication during this recovery period.
You might end up using many of the treatments that you tried initially before you got surgery. However, even if these treatments didn’t help you recover from your initial ankle and foot problems, they still might help when you’re adjusting after a surgical procedure.
Some patients heal after surgery relatively easily. These individuals will still need check-ups periodically, but it’s still possible to recover from foot or ankle problems substantially.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.