Introduction: Our aim is to analyse the results for the treatment of metatarsalgia comparing, in a retrospective way, Opened surgery (standard Weil osteotomy, group O) and Percutaneous surgery (osteotomies of the metatarsal neck with no internal fixation, group P).
Material and method: We review 30 cases in each group according to demographic data, surgery procedure, complications, time to healing and metatarsal curve. An interview with every patient was performed in order to obtain the AOFAS scale results, time to wear comfort shoes, return to daily activities, analgesia needed, visual analogic scale and global satisfaction.
Results: Group O: 29 women, 1 man. Mean age of 61 years. Mean number of metatarsal osteotomies per patient 2,21. 27 cases associated to hallux valgus surgery.
Group P: 25 women, 5 men. Mean age of 51,5 years. Mean number of metatarsal osteotomies per patient 2,56. 23 cases associated to hallux valgus surgery.
Groups O/P: time to bone healing 4,21/17,5 weeks; AOFAS scale 80,56/88,32 points; VAS 3,0/2,04 points; metatarsal curve in milimeters −0,75/−4,67/−6,67/−12,2 vs +0,72/−5.72/−5,52/−11,52; time to wear comfort shoes 18/11 weeks; return to daily activities 12,4/10,5 weeks; analgesia needed for 9/5 weeks. Global satisfaction was: group O 44% excellent, 24% good, 20% fair and 12% bad; group P 54% excellent, 25% good, 7% fair and 14% bad. Complications: 44.8% in group O (mainly minor problems of wound) and 23,3% in group P (mainly non-unions).
Conclusions: We would like to remark the differences with statistical significance: mean age is lower in group P, time to bone healing is longer in group P but time to wear comfort shoes is shorter in these patients.
There are no statistical differences for metatarsal curve. According to AOFAS scale there are no differences except for the alineation items (better in group O). No differences neither for global satisfaction of the patients nor for visual analogic scale. Complications are predictable for each technique: skin problems in group O and union problems in group P.
We conclude that both procedures are acceptable in the treatment of metatarsalgia with similar objective and subjective results.
