Complications After Hammer Toe Surgery

A hammer toe is a deformity of the second, third or fourth toe, which causes it to be permanently bent. For more information about Hammertoe, call Foot Care of Manhattan at 212-564-2331 for an appointment with one of our New York City podiatrists. Hammertoe is a condition in which a toe becomes crooked and and points downward. Hammertoes occur when the smaller toes of the foot become bent and prominent. Mertoe is exactly. No instant look-up matches. Gender: Women are at an added risk of suffering from leg pain as they tend to wear high-heeled shoes. Thus, foot pain is a major cause of disability in older women. Diseases: There are many systemic diseases that can lead to aching and painful feet. In people suffering from severe diabetes, the person could suffer from diabetic foot, a condition where there is initially severe pain and then loss of sensation in the feet. In case of muscle or tendon pulls, there may be sharp foot pain. Other diseases that could lead to pain in the feet include arthritis, plantar fasciitis, hammer toe, etc. Vitamin Deficiency: Lack of vitamin B could also cause feet to ache. The toe will not move as much as a normal toe. Hammertoe can also be a result of squeezing within a too-small or ill-fitting shoe or wearing high heels that jam your toes into a tight toe box inside your shoe, arthritis, trauma and muscle and nerve damage from diseases such as diabetes. Each of your feet has 26 bones, more than 30 muscles and numerous tendons and ligaments that work together to bear and propel your body weight during standing, walking and running. The toes (as well as the fingers) are each made up of bones called phalanges, two in the big toes and three in the others. You place 1½ times your weight on your feet when you walk normally (and more when you run) and it's estimated that the average person walks for approximately 1,000 miles each year. Diabetes is often a cause of mallet toe. Essentially, there's one consistent type of hammertoe — the condition in which your toes are contracted into a hammer or upside-down "V" shape. Flexible hammertoe is hammertoe in which the joints of the toes are still moveable or flexible and can be treated with nonsurgical therapies. Rigid hammertoe is the more serious condition in which the joints' muscles and tendons have lost any flexibility and the contraction cannot be corrected by nonsurgical means. As a result, surgery is generally Mallet Toe required to deal with the problem. This is why it's important to consult a physician as soon as the problem is recognized for the possibility of successful nonsurgical treatment. Your doctor is very likely to be able to diagnose your hammertoe simply by examining your foot. You'll be asked about your symptoms, when they started and when they occur. You may also be asked to flex your toe so that your doctor can get an idea of your range of motion. You are about to have surgery. Surgeons refer to this as a false joint (or pseudo joint) because the scar tissue allows a bit of motion to occur between the two bones while keeping them from rubbing together and causing pain. If clawing is a problem, then the MTP joint may also have to be released to relieve the contracture of this joint and allow the proximal phalanx to come into the correct position. The surgeon then releases the tight ligaments and tendons until the toe easily moves back into the proper alignment. The toe may be held in the proper alignment with a metal pin until the soft tissues heal. Patients with hammer toe or claw toe deformities may benefit from four to six physical therapy treatments. Recommendations may be given of shoes that have extra depth in the forefoot. The upper part of the toe remains flat against the ground as usual, but there's a large swollen bend at that middle joint. Mallet toes bend downward sharply at the top joint, nearest the toe nail, and claw toes bend at the middle joint far more sharply than hammertoes, with the very tip of the toe scuffing against the ground when you walk. You might also have curly toes, in which the middle joint bends and tucks the top part of the toe completely beneath, so the toe nail itself is dragging against the ground as you walk or stand.