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Minimally Invasive Surgery

Minimally Invasive Surgery services offered in Clarksville, Nashville and Erin, TN and Hopkinsville, KY

Recovering after surgery is much quicker and less painful with minimally invasive surgery. At their offices in Clarksville, Nashville, and Erin, Tennessee, and Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the  Gateway Foot and Ankle Center team assesses your suitability for minimally invasive foot and ankle surgery before performing your operation using advanced techniques like arthroscopy. To find out more, call your nearest Gateway Foot and Ankle Center office today or go online to arrange a consultation.

What is minimally invasive surgery?

Minimally invasive surgery is an approach that employs advanced technology to avoid making large surgical incisions. This has significant advantages, such as:

  • Minimal tissue damage
  • Less bleeding
  • Reduced post-surgical pain
  • Faster healing
  • Quicker recovery
  • Smaller, often unnoticeable scars
  • Shorter hospital stay

Most minimally invasive surgeries the Gateway Foot and Ankle Center surgeons perform are outpatient procedures, so you go home the day of your operation.

What does minimally invasive surgery involve?

Minimally invasive foot and ankle surgeries often use arthroscopic techniques. An arthroscope is a flexible tube that has a light and camera on its tip. Your surgeon makes a small incision in your foot or ankle and inserts the arthroscope. The camera relays video of the inside of your foot or ankle to a screen in the operating room.

Your surgeon uses the images to guide them, employing arthroscopic instruments that fit into the original or other small incisions. Procedures the Gateway Foot and Ankle Center surgeons can complete using arthroscopic techniques alone or in combination with open surgery include:

  • Tendon and ligament repair or reconstruction
  • Tendon lengthening
  • Straightening bones
  • Skin repairs or grafts
  • Debridement (removing dead tissue from an ulcer)
  • External and internal fixation of broken bones
  • Joint replacement
  • Limb salvage
  • Foot or ankle reconstruction

Minimally invasive techniques are suitable for many foot and ankle surgeries, but there are occasions when your podiatrist recommends open surgery for the best outcomes.

What foot and ankle conditions require minimally invasive surgery?

Surgery might be necessary if you suffer an acute injury such as a severe fracture where the bones are misaligned or crushed. If conservative treatments aren’t suitable or fail to correct chronic disorders and abnormalities, you could also benefit from minimally invasive surgery.

Conditions the Gateway Foot and Ankle Center team can address using minimally invasive surgery include:

  • Bunions
  • Rigid hammertoes
  • Arthritis
  • Heel pain, including plantar fasciitis
  • Achilles tendon injuries
  • Tarsal tunnel syndrome
  • Charcot foot
  • Neuromas

If you or your child has congenital foot abnormalities (ones you develop before birth, like flatfeet and club foot), Gateway Foot and Ankle Center’s surgeons specialize in foot and ankle reconstruction. They can also operate on patients with severe diabetic ulcers and similar wounds.

For more information on how minimally invasive surgery can benefit you, call Gateway Foot and Ankle Center today or book an appointment online.