“How successful is plantar fasciitis surgery?”
I am a 48 year old female. I want to know how successful is plantar fasciitis surgery?
23 Answers
This depends patient to patient. If a patient has failed conservative treatment for more than six months. I usually do a procedure called a fasciotomy which yields excellent results but it is a surgery nonetheless which requires post operative time and process
Surgery for plantar fasciitis can be very successful in the right patient. There are also several other treatment options that are very successful in treating heel pain without surgery.
Conservative treatment of plantar fasciitis is usually 90% effective. The surgery is also 95% effective for curing the problem of plantar fasciitis. If you have not tried steroid injections or physical therapy I would recommend that first.
Google and Wikipedia.
Done only as a last resort but works quite well with the right doctor.
70% effective. Same as conservative Treatment
Depends how it is done. Open procedures are 95% effective when I do them. The failures are generally very obese people who do not wear the recommend shoes post op. Microfasciotomy done with a Topaz machine is 80% effective, but a shoe can be worn 3 days post op and there is less pain and quicker healing. If it fails another technique can be done. There is also an arthroscopic procedure, but from what I read the results are no better than the open procedure. If it was my foot, I would choose the Topaz technique.
Plantar fasciitis surgery can be quite effective. Endoscopic plantar fasciotomy is about 80% successful. Also EPAT procedure which is not covered by most insurances can be about 80% effective as well. It does not require an incision or an injection. I would first try conservative treatment first.
Jonathan M. Kletz, DPM
Jonathan M. Kletz, DPM
Plantar fasciitis surgery is used as a last Resort after exhausting all consumers treatment, usually 95% of my patient don’t need surgery they heal and recover with aggressive conservative treatment. Consumer treatment include but not limited to decent sugar, orthotics, ice massage, stretching exercises, night splint to sleep with, physical Therapy will ultrasound treatment using Cortisone cream or gel, Cortisone injection to the heel up to three injection per year, if all that fails they should be indicated for surgical intervention
Done endoscopically, I have seen better than 90% success rate. I believe the literature says 80%. I do not remove the heel spur if present. The spur is not the cause of the pain. Removing the spur needs a long recovery.
I have been doing it this way via endoscope almost 30 years and recovery is fairly quick with little downtime and mild- moderate discomfort afterwards.
I have been doing it this way via endoscope almost 30 years and recovery is fairly quick with little downtime and mild- moderate discomfort afterwards.
In my experience, conservative treatments are 95% successful and of the 5% that are not and go to surgery endoscopic plantar fasciotomy or EPF, is 80% successful
This is a very successful surgery but requires resting the surgical side to heal adequately as well as to do the appropriate physical therapy on the healing side after surgery.
Very successful. There are different procedures, talk to your Podiatrist to find out the choices
If all conservative treatment has failed surgery may be a good option
Depends in type of procedure. Ie. Open or arthroscopic. Also depends on the surgeon skills ofcourse. Usually, I do these procedures arthroscopically. My patients walk the same day the procedure is done in the cam walker boot. On average, my patients take off the cam boot in a couple of weeks as their pain is not present. Hope this helps.
The success rate for plantar fasciitis depends on numerous things. First of depends on the type of procedure that the surgeon performs. And secondly it depends on the initial cause of the plantar fasciitis. It is important that you discuss any questions you might have with the operating physician prior to any surgical repair. In our office today, we are doing less plantar fascia surgeries we are doing regenerative/stem cell therapy, which has also been very successful. Please check on that in your area.
Thank you,
Dr. Mark R. Gorman
Thank you,
Dr. Mark R. Gorman
It can be very successful if the patient strictly follows the post-op instructions.
Great question,
As long as the calf muscle is lengthened with a gastric recession, very successful.
As long as the calf muscle is lengthened with a gastric recession, very successful.
Surgery should be considered if conservative measures fail after 6 month of trying. With that said, there are various techniques for plantar fascial surgery. I have used the endoscopic approach for over 15 years, with a 99+% success rate, meaning patients are pain free and can resume their previous activities.
There are a few types of plantar facia surgeries...a common plantar fasciotomy to release the fascia can be 2-4 weeks in a surgical shoe weight bearing..while a minimal incision procedure can be very short downtime but the procedure has to be the correct one for your particular problem.
There are a wide variety of treatment options for plantar fascia surgery and for me, surgery is not usually performed until all forms of conservative modalities have been exhausted. In treating plantar fasciitis for 28 years, I have found 80% respond conservatively and the 20% of patients where I perform surgery, 90% respond favorably to endoscopic procedures which are very minor. Other surgeries to treat fasciitis include conflation techniques and TENEC procedures. I have personally only seen 60% cure with these modalities in a sample of over 100 patients. In the end, if surgery is needed, the choice is the endoscopic plantar fasciotomy, which for me carried a 90% cure rate. That’s great odds!
Plantar fasciitis surgery can vary in success rates. There are several different procedures and all can be effective. I recommend discussing with a foot and ankle surgeon (podiatrist) for details and alternative treatment options
Plantar fascia surgery is usually not necessary if you and your physician are doing the correct things to conservatively treat the problem. There are many physicians who do the surgery, which consists of cutting the ligament near the heel (the plantar fascia). In 20 years of practice, I have only had to perform plantar fasciotomy on about 4-5 patients. So I actually don't think it is usually necessary. Cutting the ligament permanently destabilizes your arch and mechanically disrupts the proper function of the foot, leading to other problems down the road.
