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A New Fixation Technique for the Lapidus Bunionectomy

James C. Wang, DPM ^* and Brendan M. Riley, DPM 

^* Private practice, Santa Monica, CA.
Century City Hospital/West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA.

Corresponding author: James C. Wang, DPM, 2428 Santa Monica Blvd, Ste 100, Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Abstract

Presented here is a preliminary report of 102 patients who underwent first metatarsocuneiform joint arthrodeses performed with external fixation for the correction of hallux valgus. The advantages of using external fixation are the ability to initiate early weightbearing, predictable fusion, and removal of all of the hardware postoperatively. In the 102 patients reported here, the average time to initiation of unassisted full weightbearing was 13.1 days. The average time to fusion was 5.3 weeks, with removal of the external fixator at an average of 5.5 weeks postoperatively. There was no incidence of delayed union or nonunion. There was one case of pin-tract irritation, which resolved with appropriate pin care and a short course of oral antibiotics. External fixation is an effective alternative to traditional internal fixation techniques in metatarsocuneiform joint arthrodesis. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 95(4): 405–409, 2005)