Hallux rigidus success story

Sarah is a patient of mine from San Diego. She was an avid runner and loved to play golf. Sarah is 56 years old and started over the last few years developing severe pain in her big toe of her right foot. It got to the point where she could not go out for a run anymore. Due to the fact it was so painful every time she pushed on he big toe. What made her even more upset was her golf game was totally off. Her timing on her swing was affected negatively. She could not even finish nine holes. She came to me after seeing a few doctors and was frustrated with her previous treatments. She tried orthotics and injections with no relief of her pain.

Hallux rigidus success story

When she first came to my office she did not have an x ray. Using our digital x ray machine that enables us to take exact measurements of bones and joints we were able to see the problem on the x ray.

as you can see from the pictures above severe joint space destruction of the big toe was her issue. There are some fancy medical terms for it. Hallux Rigidus and hallux limitus are the two most common terms. There are many treatments available for this. Due to her advanced condition she elected to have a joint resurfacing procedure. We don’t like to perform fusions due to the loss of all motion with fusions. Here we have a saying “motion is Life”. The joint resurfacing is like a joint replacement of the big toe. The difference is that less bone is removed. I have over 8 years of follow up with my patients of joint resurfacings and there is consistent satisfaction and pain free range of motion of the big toe joint.

Hallux rigidus success story

Hallux Limitus and hallux rigidus can be painful to live with. Sarah underwent the successful surgery on her foot to resurface the joint using an arthrosurface toe implant.  Congratulations on your new toe.