Cosmetic Foot Surgery Condemned

The aggressive promotion of fashionable shoes has the members of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS) concerned. As reported by HealthNewsDigest.com women in increasing numbers are turning to foot surgery to enable them to squeeze their feet into high-fashion shoes. They are shortening toes, having bunions removed and hammertoes corrected, fillers injected under the skin—all to fit into the latest Rube Goldberg-ian configuration of straps and heels.

“Undergoing foot surgery solely for cosmetic reasons raises serious concerns, ” says Michael Cornelison, M.D. a California foot and ankle surgeon and member of the ACFAS. “We need our feet for walking and getting around, so breaking these bones to reconstruct them for appearance’s sake is a troubling matter—it often affects function and can bring risks and complications.”

HealthNewsDigest reports that the ACFAS considers surgery for purely cosmetic reasons to be so disturbing that it has taken an official position, asserting that cosmetic foot surgery should not be undertaken because it carries risks without medical benefit.

Marketing tactics have, in many cases, trivialized the gravity of foot surgery and made the treatments appear to be a rejuvenating and risk-free beauty treatment. That can create a problem because foot and ankle surgery is often a necessary and positive life-changing event for people suffering from pain and dysfunction that cannot be resolved by any other means.

To help patients understand the difference Cornelison tells his patients, “One of the biggest potential risks is taking a foot that doesn’t hurt and in the attempt to make it look better, turning it into a foot that gives you chronic pain.” Another big drawback, noted HealthNewsDigest.com, is the likely possibility that the patient’s expectations won’t be entirely met, because surgery can’t make an “abnormal” foot look completely normal.