Abstract
Aims: Surgical treatment of forefoot deformities is a common procedure. The vast majority comprising surgery for Hallux Valgus. The indication for surgical intervention varies from pain to cosmetic reasons and footwear problems. Evidence for the effectiveness of different surgical methods is limited. The aims of this study were to perform a cross sectional population based prevalence study of surgery for forefoot deformities in Sweden and to analyze the surgical methods in use. Methods: Data on forefoot surgery were collected from the National Swedish Patient Registry between 1997 and 2000. Both ambulatory surgery (2000) and in-patient surgery (1997–2000) were collected. The data were processed to quantify the frequency of different surgical methods. Results: In 2000, a total of 4409 procedures for forefoot deformities were reported in ambulatory surgery. 82% were female and 18% were male. During 1997–2000, a total of 2547 procedures were performed performed in hospitalised patients. The gender distribution in this group was similar; 84% were female and 16% were male. The frequency distribution between different forefoot deformities will be presented. Discussion: Forefoot surgery is a common procedure, Hallux Valgus being the most frequent deformity to be corrected. The choice of surgical methods will be discussed and a validation of the National Swedish Patient Registry against the Local Reimbursement Registry in the Stockholm area will be presented.
Theses abstracts were prepared by Professor Dr. Frantz Langlais. Correspondence should be addressed to him at EFORT Central Office, Freihofstrasse 22, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland.
