Digital Tenotomy Can Prevent Many Diabetic Infections: MD Podiatrist

According to Dan Michaels, DPM, “Lower extremity amputations are a tremendous source of illness, disability, and death for Americans living with diabetes. One of the most common sites for these problems to develop is at the tips of the toes. The digits are susceptible to changes in their positioning over the years, becoming angled up or down, even over adjacent toes.” 
 
“A surgical procedure can be used to straighten the toes. This can be a risky venture, taxing the individual’s blood supply, which is often inadequate. Many diabetics are leery of having this kind of correction performed, entailing increased risks of problems with healing (more common in diabetics), risks of infection, and prolonged immobility. Under-utilized is the simple release of a toe tendon.This can be achieved without an incision, a simple procedure, performed in the treatment room, with a needle stick. This can provide enough straightening of the digit to ease the pressure. Not all hammertoes can be corrected this way. But this simple one-minute procedure can sufficiently alter the inexorable process of skin death, infection, hospitalization, and amputation,” says Dr. Michaels.