For many of us, our feet are the furthest things from our minds, both physically and mentally. We expect they’ll be uncomfortable at times, and we put up with it when they hurt. But healthy feet are fundamental to the quality of our lives. They are wondrously engineered and often the indicators of our overall health, so we need to look after them. Signs of arthritis, diabetes, nerve, and circulatory disorders can all be detected in our feet. For these reasons and many more, we must ensure that our feet get the expert care they need and deserve at all stages in our lives.
Foot and ankle has undergone significant recent advances which has improved the understanding of this complex area. As a result of this, there are now many surgical procedures that, when performed correctly, have been shown to be effective in treating patients with foot and ankle complaints who have had unsuccessful nonsurgical treatment. Due to the many causes of pain, swelling and stiffness around the foot and ankle, it is essential that patients are thoroughly assessed in order to establish the exact cause of the presenting symptoms, so that the appropriate treatment may be recommended. As part of the assessment process, an experienced team of physiotherapists, radiologists, nurses and orthotosists work alongside in order to ensure that each patient receives the best quality of care.
Feet are complex anatomical structures, all-in-one stabilizers, shock absorbers, and propulsion engines that are instrumental to overall health and wellbeing.
They require expert care.
The human foot combines mechanical complexity and structural strength. The ankle serves as foundation, shock absorber and propulsion engine.The foot can sustain enormous pressure (several tons over the course of a one-mile run) and provides flexibility and resiliency.
The foot and ankle contain 26 bones (One-quarter of the bones in the human body are in the feet.); 33 joints; more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments (Tendons are fibrous tissues that connect muscles to bones and ligaments are fibrous tissues that connect bones to other bones.); and a network of blood vessels, nerves, skin, and soft tissue.
If severe ankle pain affects your quality of life, then ankle replacement surgery may be an effective pain relief option. Since the ankle is a weight-bearing joint that absorbs the body’s full impact, pain from an injured or diseased ankle can be especially severe and debilitating.
The main advantages of foot and ankle surgery are:
The results of ankle replacement today are good and the outcome of ankle replacement from a functional standpoint is better than that of arthrodesis. In an ankle arthrodesis, the joint is fused or glued together, limiting the up and down movement. An ankle replacement, however, allows a more normal “function”. Movement of the ankle also prevents the stress that accumulates in joints next to the ankle following a fusion of the ankle. What happens is that if a joint is fused together the joints next to it try to adjust to some of the movement that was lost. This leads to the development of arthritis in these joints. In fact, ten years after a fusion of the ankle 100% of patients will demonstrate findings of arthritis in the joints next to the ankle.
FOOT AND ANKLE ARTHRITIS
Chairman & Executive Director
Elite Institutes of Orthopaedics & Joint Replacement
Paras Hospitals, Panchkula | Ivy Hospitals, Punjab
Formerly:
Director & Head Orthopaedics – Fortis Hospital- Mohali, Amritsar
Director & Head Orthopaedics – Max Hospital- Mohali, Bathinda, Dehradun
