Advantages of Lapiplasty® 3D Bunion Correction Over Traditional Bunion Surgery

You want the best for you or your family’s healthcare, now read why 3D bunion correction offers that to you.

1)     3D bunion correction fixes the bunion deformity in all three planes of deformity.  According to research, 87% of bunions are misaligned in 3 dimensions.   Traditional bunion surgery does not address all three dimensions of the deformity, therefore normal joint alignment is not restored after surgery.   

2)     3D bunion correction allows the patient to walk the day of surgery.  3D bunion correction allows the patient to walk throughout the recovery process in a walking boot, traditional surgery for bunion restricts the patient from weight bearing at all for anywhere from 2- 8 weeks depending on the procedure selected. 

3)     3D bunion correction has scientific studies to back up its proven long-term results.  Results from traditional bunion surgery vary greatly based on surgeon’s procedure selection and skill.  With Lapiplasty ® you know what you are getting, and that it has proven results. See publications tab for direct links to full studies.

4)     3D Bunion surgery is templated to provide surgeons with reproducible results.  Traditional bunion surgery relies completely on the skill of the surgeon, where 3D bunion surgery removes the fiddle factor that results in surgical errors or poor outcomes.  This is achieved with a patented cutting guide that makes precise cuts every time.

5)     3D bunion surgery repairs the bunion deformity at its source.  The majority of bunions in America are corrected with a cut and shift method the attempts to align the big toe and remove the bump seen on the foot.  This results in a crooked bone, but 3D bunion correction restores the normal alignment of the bone.

6)     3D bunion surgery creates a more permanent solution.  Traditional bunion surgery has up to a 70% recurrence rate after surgery, 3D bunion correction has a 1 to 3% recurrence rate based on published studies.

7)     Only specially trained surgeons are allowed to perform Lapiplasty ® 3D bunion correction.  Treace Medical, the manufacturers of the Lapiplasty® system will not allow a surgeon to perform this procedure without getting special training on the product first.  This is not the case for the majority of medical implants.  Treace holds special conferences called Masters events to further advance the technique to perfect their system.

8)     The need for physical therapy is significantly less than traditional bunion surgery.  I rarely send my patients to physical therapy and instead have them perform home exercises to aid in increase of great toe joint motion after surgery.   Traditional bunion surgery requires substantial dissection at the great toe joint, leading to scar tissue formation that often needs prolonged physical therapy, not to mention the prolonged non-weightbearing with traditional surgery often requires patients to perform PT just to learn to walk normally again. 

9)     Risk of failure of joint fusion is significantly reduced.  3D bunion correction is a advancement of a traditional approach called a Lapidus fusion, hence the name Lapiplasty®.  Traditional Lapidus surgery has a historically 10 percent failure rate of fusion of the joint where the bunion originates, but Lapiplasty® has a (2.2 percent) failure rate of fusion.

10)  Two plates for fixation are better than one.   Traditional lapidus fusion of the foot would usually use only two screws or a plate and screws at the fusion point and did not correct abnormal rotation of the metatarsal. This allowed for motion at the surgical site, hence the need for below the knee casting and non-weightbearing after surgery.   3D bunion correction uses two very stable plates that allows immediate weightbearing after surgery without the extreme concern for hardware failure. 

11)  Thin locking plate technology reduces need for hardware removal after surgery.  Two thin plates are applied in 3D bunion correction, while other plating systems have much thicker stouter plates.  The thicker an implanted plate, the more risk of patient irritation

12) A mini incision approach is available. The mini incision lapiplasty system allows for smaller incision, and of course less dissection. Traditionally, in my experience, the longer the incision needs to be, the more swelling, scar formation and pain occurs. This helps reduce this concern while at the same time resulting in a better cosmetic result.

13)  You get to go shoe shopping! 3D bunion correction reduces the first metatarsal to its normal position, narrowing the foot to its anatomic/intended width.  Osteotomies in larger bunions (bone cut and shift technique) often fail to significantly narrow the foot to its ant\atomic width at the forefoot and instead just remove visible bump and straighten toe, leaving a wider than normal foot.

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