The American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons held their 68^th annual scientific conference February 22-26 in Las Vegas.  The physicians of Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Center presented 13 posters, 3 manuscripts and gave multiple lectures at the conference.  Thirty four manuscripts were accepted for the competition.  OFAC won honorable mention for research entitled: “Bi-Plane Chevron Medial Malleolar Osteotomy for Increased Exposure of the Medial Talar Dome”.  The authors of this manuscript include William T. DeCarbo, DPM, AACFAS, Angela Granata MSIII and Christopher F. Hyer, DPM, FACFAS.

The physicians of OFAC recently had their research published in the peer-reviewed journal, Foot and Ankle Specialist. The article demonstrates a new method to correcting severe bunion deformities while safely allowing patients to ambulate much sooner. The procedure, called a Lapidus arthrodesis or fusion, typically required patients to be in a non-weight-bearing cast for at least 6 -8 weeks. New techniques and evidence documented in this study by OFAC has shown a higher healing rate than other published studies and with patients weight-bearing at 2 weeks after the surgery!

Severe Bunion Deformity

Severe Bunion Corrected with Modified Lapidus Technique

With this new technique, patients often can begin protected weight-bearing in a bunion boot walker around 10-12 days. This is an important advance as early weight bearing minimizes time lost from work, eases burdens onto family and friends and is overall much healthier for our patients. 

'Bunion Boot'- protects foot during early weight-bearing.

Not all bunions need to be fixed, but when they do, the physicians of OFAC have the expertise and experience to insure the solution is the right one for you.  I encourage everyone to ask questions, discuss with your doctor and understand what is being recommended and why.

One of our main tenets in practice is to continually educate and strive to improve. I am proud of the research and education efforts our team provides and am confident it is unmatched anywhere. Our new website allows us to quickly broadcast this new information as it becomes available, often before it is even in print.

Check back often as more and more of our work moves toward publication in leading medical journals.

Christopher F. Hyer, DPM, FACFAS

Co-Director, Foot and Ankle Fellowship, Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Center, Westerville, Ohio

Trauma Section Editor, The Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery

Editorial Board, Foot and Ankle Specialist