JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Studies show that one third of men and women in the U.S. have a bunion—that painful bone that sticks out of your foot. It can cause excruciating pain and literally knock you right off your feet. They’re mostly caused by genetics, but wearing tight shoes can aggravate bunion symptoms. Each year, 400,000 people will have a surgery to try and relieve their pain. Now, a new procedure is offering hope to get rid of them once and for all.
Marathons, ultra-marathons, triathlons, Iron Man—Paul Wilson finds his joy in running.
“The longest run I’ve ever done solo is the 55 miles,” he said.
Wilson even turned his passion into a mission. When his newborn son underwent lifesaving surgery, he created an annual ultra-marathon run to raise money for the hospital that saved his son’s life. But Wilson was sidelined by severe pain in his left foot caused by a bunion.
“Normally, what you see in a bunion is some instability that comes from the midfoot part and then it allows that bone to go out, creating the boney prominence on the side,” said Dr. Hiram Carrasquillo, an orthopedic surgeon at Jacksonville Orthopaedics Institute.
Traditional surgery requires the bone on the side of the toe to be shaved off. Recovery can be long and painful, and there’s a 70 percent chance of recurrence. Now, Dr. Carrasquillo is using a new FDA-cleared Lapiplasty 3D bunion correction procedure to get to the root of the problem.
“It’s three dimensional. When you correct this, you rotate, bring it in, and bring it down at the same time,” added Dr. Carrasquillo.
Six weeks after surgery, Wilson was wearing shoes, and this year, he ran in the race he started.
“It’s about getting back to what I truly love doing,” he said.
The Lapiplasty procedure has also shown a low recurrence rate. Studies show up to 99 percent of patients do not have a recurrence of the bunion 17 months after the surgery. Lapiplasty 3D bunion correction is generally covered by most insurances and Medicare.
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