FAQs

Backward Foot Surgery   This is an option used when limb salvage is no longer viable and an amputation is necessary. This type of surgery is also known as rotationplasty. It is mainly used in younger patients with bone cancer who need a portion of the thigh bone (femur) removed due to a tumour.  The lower leg is able to be attached to below the site of femur amputation. What was the a...
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Rheumatoid Arthritis in the foot: What is Rheumatoid Arthritis? Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that affects mostly the smaller joints in the body – so especially the hands and feet. The term autoimmune disease means that your body attacks some of its own tissue as if it were a foreign invader.  It is thought to have some genetic factors and some environmental factors, particularly ...
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What is Iselin's Disease? Iselin's Disease is pain around the base of the little toe (5th metatarsal) that may radiate down the lateral (outside) of the foot. Commonly a sharp/aching sometimes ‘bruised’ type of pain. This is often associated with localized swelling and redness. Pain typically gets worse with activity occasionally resulting in a ‘limp’. Who gets Iselin's Disease? Comm...
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Fish Pedicure Is having a fish pedicure safe? In the last five years, spas around the world have copied the Asian trend of providing tanks of fish to nibble away the dead skin on heels and feet. Pedicures are generally performed by the Garra Rufa breed of fish. These are a small fish, black or dark fawn in colour and usually hundreds of individual fish populate each tank. A research gro...
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Foot Examination / diagnosis by a podiatrist. Medicine in general and podiatry specifically have become increasingly high tech in recent years. Personally, I think that, with more technology, we are at risk of forgetting the basic tenets of diagnosis. The physical exam used to involve putting your hands on your patients, testing the range and quality of motion, manual muscle testing for weakn...
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Preventing fungal infection of toenails & Nail care after laser treatment Fungal spores are a natural part of everyone’s skin flora.  No matter what you do, these bugs are everywhere all the time. However, it is important for the prevention of infection (or re-infection) that you control the numbers of fungi in your environment, even if we can’t remove them all. The main culprits that all...
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Can bad feet cause headaches ? If you regularly suffer from headaches on days involving a lot of standing or walking, it is possible that poor foot mechanics can be the cause. Each day, we walk and stand on hard unyielding surfaces.  Our feet have a natural method of absorbing shock  which is hampered by excessive foot pronation.  This means that, for nearly 40% of us, the feet waste their...
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What is Sinus Tarsi Syndrome? The sinus tarsi is a bony canal inside the foot.  It runs roughly crossways (like left to right) just in front of the outside ankle bone.  If you feel that area, you will find a deeper spot where you can push your finger further inwards than in the bony areas that surround it. The canal is formed by two ‘half-pipe' like grooves carved into the bones that meet ...
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Outside Ankle pain: Lateral Subtalar Joint Impingement There is a common condition that causes pain in the area just forward of the outside ankle bone. If you poke around this area, you will find a deeper spot where you can push your finger further inwards than in the bony areas that surround it. This is the Sinus Tarsi and the Subtalar Joint. Often the pain is difficult for the sufferer t...
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Buerger's Disease or Thromboangiitis Obliterans Thromboangiitis or Buerger's Disease is a reasonably rare condition in which the small blood vessels of the hands and feet are occluded (or blocked) by inflammation of the vessels.  This inflammation is called vasculitis.  The reduced flow of blood will cause pain in the short term.  If it continues for a long enough period, patches of skin and ...
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