Do I Need Physical Therapy after 3D Bunion Correction™

One of the great advantages of 3D bunion correction, is the reduced need for physical therapy. 

In the past, almost every patient that had corrective bunion surgery required physical therapy.  The traditional osteotomy approach for bunion correction had extensive dissection of the tissues around the great toe joint. This often led to stiffness and swelling at this joint, as increased dissection anywhere leads to greater deep tissue scarring and fibrous bands called adhesions. This results in limited great toe joint motion. To improve this limited motion at the great toe joint, the skilled hands of a physical therapist were needed to reduce scar tissue and adhesions in the joint. 

The Lapiplasty® procedure requires much less dissection near the great toe joint, and because of this, patients often have near full range of motion of the great toe from the start of recovery. 

In my practice, on the day of suture removal(10-14 days post-op), I discuss proper range of motion exercises of the joint that you the patient can easily perform at home. Even in the first two weeks of surgery, while you are still in a dressing, I encourage gentle wiggling of the toe 2-3 times a day to reduce adhesions to joint.   I do however recommend therapy for most patients who don’t feel comfortable doing their own exercises or patients with more arthritic stiff toes, or patients that don’t feel comfortable moving their own toes. A referral for a skilled manual (hands on) physical therapist will be made in these circumstance.   Those patients that need or opt for therapy typically attend for 4-6 weekly about twice a week.

Steps to reduce the need for physical therapy

1) Wiggle your toes 2-3 times a day for one-two minutes as tolerated during the recovery process starting on post-operative day 1. Swelling and the surgical dressing may limit the wiggle, but even small motion helps.

2) Ice as instructed! Swelling can make it difficult to move your toe in the first two weeks after surgery. Less swelling equals more motion, more motion means less stiffness, less stiffness means less risk of need for physical therapy.

3) Begin home range of motion exercises as instructed by your physician. In most cases this begins at 2 weeks after surgery, but if you have had an additional procedure called an Akin osteotomy to help align your toe, it is not recommended until week 4.

With or without therapy, in my hands, patients who have Lapiplasty® surgery get their range of motion back much more quickly and to a greater degree than traditional bunion surgery patients.

Click here to schedule an appointment with Dr. Paul Steinke, the 3Dbuniondoc