Dealing with foot or ankle pain, injuries or conditions? Minimally invasive foot and ankle surgery is an advanced surgical technique with many benefits. Dr. Nicholas J. Wegner discusses MIS for the foot and ankle in this complimentary webinar recording.
Minimally invasive foot and ankle surgery performed is done through small keyhole-like incisions as opposed to the traditional large incision from conventional foot and ankle surgery. Patients who undergo minimally invasive foot and ankle surgery experience a variety of benefits.
Learn all about minimally invasive foot surgery, why it's performed, what it can treat, and more!
Agenda:
- What is Minimally Invasive Foot Surgery?
- Why Minimally Invasive Foot and Ankle Surgery?
- What Can be Treated?
- Bunions
- Hammer Toes
- Bumps
- Arthritis
- Tendon Injuries
- How to Find the Right MIS Foot and Ankle Doctor
- Q&A
Minimally Invasive Foot & Ankle Surgery is a really exciting topic because it’s at the cutting edge of foot and ankle surgery. It’s a procedure I’ve been performing over the past few years and we’re seeing great outcomes in my patients. We're really at a paradigm shift in terms of foot and ankle surgery now with minimally invasive surgery.
First off, the goal of any foot and ankle surgery is the same:
- To treat any type of pain
- Correct the deformity
- Promote and maintain the biomechanics of the foot.
The Pioneer of Foot & Ankle Surgery
I trained at the University of Washington and Dr. Sig Hansen was one of the pioneers and truly godfathers of foot and ankle surgery. And with regard to the foot, he made it simple. He said “just make it look like a foot”.
The Progression
Our hand surgeons have been using minimally invasive techniques for years and years. The progression to MIS started with open techniques, oftentimes with larger incisions. Then over time, we progressed to make those incisions smaller. Now we’ve developed instruments such as the arthroscope or smaller cameras to look inside joints. We began using arthroscopic techniques in large joints, initially the knee and subsequently the shoulder.
As cameras got smaller, we progressed to the smaller joints; the elbow, and eventually into the ankle. Now we can access really small joints such as the joints in the wrist or the toes. And finally, we use some of those same techniques and some of the same instruments to not only look inside joints but also look into body cavities.
There are all these surgeons that are doing arthroscopic ACL reconstruction or repairing meniscus through little tiny holes. The same thing could be said for shoulder surgery, for rotator cuff tears or labral tears in order to deal with the instability of the shoulders. We've been doing those for years. One of the pioneers here in Omaha is Dr. Jack McCarthy, who has been doing endoscopic carpal tunnel surgery for over 30 years.
Why minimally invasive surgery?
The benefits are pretty obvious. First off, in terms of an anesthetic with a small incision, oftentimes it doesn't hurt nearly as much. You can do a majority of the surgery either with an anesthetic using a block or not as deep as an anesthetic. We're learning that there's less soft tissue damage, there's less pain, and oftentimes it leads to a quicker recovery.
The Benefits of MIS:
- Anesthetic
- Local vs Block
- Quicker Recovery
- Less Soft Tissue Damage
- Better Pain Management
- Quicker Surgery
- Less time getting there/closing
- Low Complication Rate
- Infection
- Nerve Damage
- Vascular Injury
Have more questions? Book an appointment with Dr. Nicholas Wegner, Minimally Invasive Foot & Ankle Specialist