What ?

Hallux rigidus is caused by the wear-and-tear of the big toe joint. This can be just a symptom of old age, but it can also be the result of trauma, rheumatism or other causes of joint disease.

Symptoms:

Hallux rigidus causes pain while walking, but this is sometimes outweighed by the limited mobility or stiffness of the toe. You will find walking a strain since the toe needs its mobility for the rolling of your foot.

Pain and stiffness of the big toe are the most important symptoms. Athrosis can often also cause inflammation of the articular membrane. Because of this, the toe can become swollen. On top of that arthrosis also causes parrot’s beaks that can be a nuisance while wearing shoes. Contrary to the hallux valgus, where the big toe is undeniably crooked, this is not the case in hallux rigidus.

Diagnosis:

The diagnosis is made on the basis of your symptoms, the clinical examination of your foot and conventional radiography.

Treatment:

First we try to bring the symptoms under control relying on non-surgical treatments, such as adapted shoes, painkillers or infiltration of the painful joint.

Sometimes they fail and surgery will still be required. Depending on the extent of the wear-and-tear there are two procedures that are commonly used: cheilectomy and arthrodesis.

Cheilectomy:

This technique is especially useful for minor wear-and-tear. During a cheilectomy all parrot’s beaks and the inflamed articular membrane are removed. Not only does this improve the mobility of the big toe, it also alleviates the pain. The particular advantage of this technique is that the mobility of the big toe remains and even improves.

Arthrodesis:

In more severe cases of arthrosis the painful little joint will be fixed in such a way that the loss of mobility will disrupt the normal walking pattern as little as possible.

During this procedure we remove all the (damaged) cartilage from the joint so that there is bone-on-bone contact. The joint will then be fixed with two screws so that the bones can grow together. Once that has happened, the pain will have disappeared. The last phalanx will stay mobile so that nearly all kinds of shoes can be worn.