Our Top Foot Surgeons Offer Toe Fusion at Mercy Medical Center

A fusion is when the two sides of an arthritic, painful, or deformed joint are made to heal together into one solid piece of bone.

When this is successful there is no further pain in the joint and the toe is permanently straight. However, a side effect of the surgery is that the toe is stiff.

In most cases where a toe fusion surgery is necessary, the patient is happy to trade the loss of flexibility for pain relief. In most cases of toe fusion, there is little to no effect on activities of daily living.

A toe fusion is performed by removing the cartilage from both sides of the joint and perforating the ends of the both bones to expose the underlying bleeding bone. This procedure simulates a fracture for which the body has a built-in program for healing.

In order to get the two bones to heal to each other, metal plates, screws or pins are used to bring the two bleeding ends of the bones in contact with each other. This way when the bone healing program runs its course, the two bones will connect together and become one bone.