Quite a few patients ask about bunion surgery and bunion surgery recovery.  I hear a lot of stories from patients about neighbors, friends or family members that have had bunion surgery.  There seems to be some misconceptions about bunion surgery and some general misconceptions.  I want to help clarify this for patients and anybody thinking about fixing their bunion.

Bunion surgery can really be broken down into two different procedure locations.  Bunions can be corrected at the head of the metatarsal or the base of the metatarsal.  The head procedures are generally utilized for smaller bunions and base procedures are better suited for larger bunions. 

Head procedures are probably the most common bunion procedure.  This is often called an Austin bunionectomy and has been around for greater than 50 years.  It was one of the first bunion procedures and has great success and most patients can return to a normal shoe in about 4-6 weeks.  Patients can walk the entire time after surgery in a boot for about 4 weeks.

Base procedures are a little more involved surgery and therefore the recovery is longer.  Most base procedures can allow patients to walk in a boot in 2-4 weeks.  However, the total recovery from this type of surgery can be 8 weeks or longer.

I hope this helps to answer a few bunion surgery questions!  Give us a call at 425-391-8666 or make an appointment online today.