Foot Narrowing Main Description

Foot narrowing or Cinderella surgery can be undertaken on patients with abnormally wide feet. This is often caused by bunions on one or both sides of the foot (hallux valgus and Tailor’s bunion deformity). This is often combined with toe-shortening, or correction of associated toe-deformities such as hammertoes. Most of our techniques can be safely undertaken under a local anaesthetic as a day-case surgery.

X-rays will be required to establish the amount of narrowing that can be safely achieved and not all patients will be able to have the surgery. Our consultant has over 26-years surgical experience in foot-narrowing surgery. The consultation will cover the condition, how the correction is undertaken, rehabilitation, post-surgical recovery requirements and the risks of the surgery.

Foot Narrowing Quotes

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MRS T G, LONDON:

"It was a real pleasure meeting Mr H, who has a lovely manner about him and we appreciated that he took his time to answer questions and did not make us 'hurry out' for his next appointment!"

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Sometimes called Cinderella surgery correcting the big toe joint bunion and little toe joint bunion.

Sometimes called Cinderella surgery correcting the big toe joint bunion and little toe joint bunion.

Sometimes called Cinderella surgery, this is a combination of procedures usually involving correcting the big toe joint bunion (hallux valgus) and little toe joint bunion (Tailor’s bunion). Often one or two of the toes are straightened and shortened when, for example, the 2nd toe is longer than the big toe. The foot face lift is very much concerned with the aesthetic improvement to the look of the foot. Once the post-operative swelling has resolved (3-6 months), the foot is left a little shorter and usually much narrower. Combined with the 2nd toe (and often also) the 3rd toe being shortened also (for ladies especially); fitting in fashionable shoes will now be much easier. Most of our cases report that shoes are uncomfortable with these deformities rubbing in shoes, which precludes them from wearing high-fashion shoes. Once the lumps and bumps on the sides of the foot are removed our aim for you is to be able to wear a much greater range of shoes in comfort.

Cinderella Surgery

Cinderella Surgery:

For these procedures the 1st and 5th metatarsal bones on each side are cut and slid into the corrected position to remove the bunions and narrow the foot. The bone are fixed in the corrected position involving the use of what is called “internal fixation”, involving placing special bone screws, pins or plates in the bones to help maintain the correction and promote good bone healing. Around 10% of patient may need to have the metalwork removed at a future stage as they do sometimes move (migrate) causing irritation. Many of our patient do also have long and or hammertoe / mallet toe deformities and these can be corrected at the same time as performing the bunion surgery procedures.

We are often asked whether they will set off the x-ray machines at airports after the surgery. Our view is that there is generally not enough metalwork for this to happen and so far this has not been reported to us. Larger implants such as hip and knee replacements will set off the airport alarms. Below are some before and after pictures of the work we have undertaken on our patients.

Typical appearance pre and post surgery of the 'Cinderella' procedure. The foot is considerably narrowed and the uncomfortable bumps which rubbed in shoes now means this lady wears her Jimmy Choo's with comfort!

To show a perfect example of the 'foot face lift'. This patient had both bunions removed at each side and the 2nd and 3rd toes shortened. The left foot was corrected 3-months afterwards.

Another example of our signature foot face lift where the foot was considerably narrowed and straightened on both sides. A little residual swelling is seen at this stage, which will resolve in time.

The 'foot face lift' - correction of bunion and shortening and straightening of the middle 3 toes for shoe-fitting. The picture on the right is 6-months after the surgery.

This 26-year-old model had her bunion corrected and the middle 3-toes were shortened and straightened. She can now get her Louboutins on!

Our signature foot face lift: Both bunions and 2nd toe shortened and corrected.

This lady had a big toe bunion and Tailor's bunion correction of the little toe joint. The 2nd hammertoe was also corrected with Smart toe clip. This is 10-months after surgery with no visible scarring.

 

Nextra Clips For Toe Corrections

Nextra Clips For Toe Corrections:

This type of surgery on hammertoes has been performed since 1940. Traditionally external pins are left in the toes for up to 6-weeks. This increases infection and swelling and the risk of failure of surgery. Our new internal clips from the USA are the latest and safest design for both hammertoe and toes-shortening surgery. No special boot is required, driving after only 2-weeks is allowed. Bathing is allowed after one week. Less post-op swelling is noted and the success rate has also improved with fewer complications than traditional pinning techniques.

The 2nd and 3rd toes were shortened with Nextra clips. The depigmented corn lesions were also removed permanently.

X-ray to show Nextra clip in the 2nd toe after toe-shortening surgery.

 

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