Advanced Hallux Rigidus
71 year old male with chronic big toe arthritis pain. We discussed fusion vs cheilectomy. We opted for a minimally invasive with partial open 1st metatarsal cheilectomy. We discussed if this were to fail we would proceed to fuse.
Even on his first day after surgery he had some “twinges” of pain but has done very well. He is two weeks out with no pain, we have cleared him for all activities, specifically tennis! He is very happy he chose the lesser invasive option given he has no symptoms and the pain in his big toe is now gone. The xrays show the arthritis before and after surgery, plus the xray shows his excellent dorsiflexion post resection of the arthritis!
When performing a “cheilectomy” its important to remove at least 1/3 of the metatarsal head, removing too little bone on the primary resection is a common cause for failure of this procedure!