By Haleigh M.
About 60 million Americans suffer from hammertoe, a painful deformity that can cause the second, third and fourth toes of the foot to curl up and take on a claw-like appearance. Hammertoe is often the result of heredity or disease.
Arthritis, diabetes, nerve injury, toe injury or any condition that causes a person to be bedridden can cause the tendons in the small toes to tighten and the toe itself to curl up. People who spend a lot of time on their feet can also develop hammertoe, and ill-fitting shoes can be to blame.
Treatments for hammertoe vary depending on how advanced the deformity is, but for many, surgery is the answer. Not so long ago, the gold standard of surgical care for hammertoe involved inserting a wire into the toe to pull it straight. Now doctors have the alternative of a tiny, screw-like implant that can be used to help hold hammertoes in a straightened position.
Treatment Options for Hammertoes
The pain of hammertoe is usually a result of the tops of the bent toes rubbing against the sufferer’s shoes. In their early stages, the joints of hammertoes retain enough flexibility that the toes can still be straightened; for these sufferers, toe pads, splints, custom shoe inserts and physical therapy can help. But if these treatments don’t help — or if the deformity progresses to the point where the toe can no longer be straightened — surgery is the answer. Orthopedic surgeons perform almost 550,000 hammertoe surgeries each year.
Hammertoe surgery often involves releasing the tendons in the toes, which may be all that’s necessary to straighten them. If further intervention is needed, surgeons may remove a tiny piece of the bone in the toe. Sometimes, a surgical implant must be used to keep the toe straight during recovery.
In the past, that meant inserting a long wire, known as a K-wire, into the toe. The wire is left protruding from the tip of the toe so that surgeons can remove it six to eight weeks after insertion, when the hammertoe is stabilized. The K-wire surgery has several limitations, however.
First of all, it’s inconvenient. Patients need to stay off their feet for the entire recovery period, and wear open-toed shoes. The wires are uncomfortable, even painful. Plus, they leave the toes open to infection.
Permanent Implants a New Option for Hammertoe Sufferers
Permanent stainless steel implants, like the ones used by My Beautiful Feet, can make walking pain-free again for hammertoe sufferers.
The tiny screws are about three quarters of an inch long. Surgeons remove a tiny piece of bone from the deformed toe, and then insert the implant. The metal is kept iced prior to insertion, so that it expands with the patient’s body heat to hold the toe bones in place as it heals. Unlike K-wires, the implant does not need to be removed after the toe stabilizes.
The implant holds the toe permanently straight — it will no longer bend after the surgery. But that’s a small price to pay for a surgical option that allows hammertoe patients to get up and walk as soon as the procedure is finished. Patients must wear therapeutic shoes for a few weeks following the procedure, but otherwise they are allowed to resume their normal activities. That’s a crucial difference for today’s hammertoe sufferers, who have busy lives and can’t afford to spend two months lying around while their feet heal from surgery.
Another benefit of the new implant is that it allows patients to wear any kind of shoes they want after the recovery period ends, without pain. Former hammertoe sufferers can even wear high heels, if they want. For many, just the ability to go barefoot in comfort is a godsend.
If you’re one of the many millions of Americans who suffer from hammertoe, you don’t have to live in pain any longer. Orthopedic surgeons now have access to a surgical implant that can be used to straighten stiff hammertoes, without the pain and complications of older hammertoe surgeries that rely on wires to hold the toe straight during healing. You won’t even need to worry about staying off your feet during the recovery period — you’ll be able to walk again right away! Now, there’s no excuse not to have your painful hammertoes treated, and take out a new lease on life.