Specialist in Foot & Ankle Surgery and Children’s Orthopaedics
Tibialis posterior surgery - Heel osteotomy & tendon transfer
- The tibialis posterior tendon is a major “guy rope” to the inside of your foot and the longitudinal arch.
- This tendon no longer works and your foot has therefore collapsed.
- The heel drifts out to the side and the arch is now flat.
- It is possible to correct your foot surgically and this will consist of an operation in two parts.
- Firstly, on the heel and secondly, on the tendon.
- The heel operation would either involve cutting the heel bone and moving it to the inner side
or correcting it through the joint if this turns out to be arthritic. - The tendon will be reconstructed through a separate incision on the inside of the foot
and borrowing a tendon that controls some of the toe movements. - You would be in hospital for approximately two to four days and you will have a plaster.
This will be changed at two weeks when the wounds will be checked to ensure there are no healing problems. - At six weeks after surgery the plaster will be removed and a protective boot worn for six weeks.
Once the boot has been removed you will be required to wear an orthotic (insole) to support your foot. - You will not be bearing weight through the foot in the first six weeks
but will take weight through the boot between six and twelve weeks. - The potential advantages are that you will have a stable foot with hopefully no pain,
but you may have some ongoing awareness of minor discomfort in the foot. - The potential complications include infection, nerve injury, failure of the bone to heal and persisting pain.
Overall, I believe you have an 85% chance of a good result, a 10% chance of a result with
improvement but still symptoms, which are somewhat annoying,
and a 5% chance of persisting pain which is troublesome.