Minimally Invasive Bunion Surgery
Advanced Correction With Less Downtime
Bunions don't have to mean months of recovery, restrictive boots, or a long road back to your normal life. Shoreline Orthopaedics offers minimally invasive bunion surgery, an advanced approach that uses smaller incisions to help reduce tissue disruption and support a faster recovery, so you can get back to your daily activities sooner.
What Makes Our Approach Different
Board-certified foot and ankle surgeon Dr. Philip Watkins performs minimally invasive bunion surgery using a refined approach that reduces the amount of permanent hardware by 66% compared to other commonly performed techniques. While this may sound like a technical difference, it can translate into better outcomes for patients, including less disruption to surrounding tissue and a lower likelihood of needing a second procedure to remove hardware.
- Less Dissection Required: Fewer implants mean less disruption to surrounding tissue during the procedure itself.
- Lower Risk of Hardware Removal Surgery: One of the most common reasons patients need a second surgery after bunion correction is hardware irritation or prominence. Reducing hardware significantly lowers this risk, meaning fewer patients face a second procedure down the road.
Benefits of Our Minimally Invasive Technique
Extra-Articular Correction
Unlike traditional approaches that open the joint to achieve alignment, our technique corrects the bunion deformity without entering the joint space. This preserves native tissue and minimizes scarring around the joint, which means:
- Reduced risk of postoperative adhesions
- Better preservation of joint motion
- More natural-feeling results
Walk the Same Day
Forget weeks of being off your feet. Patients undergoing this minimally invasive technique are able to bear weight and walk immediately after surgery. No crutches, no knee scooters, no putting your life on hold.
Less Postoperative Pain
With smaller incisions, reduced dissection, and less hardware, patients experience significantly less pain in the days and weeks following surgery compared to traditional open bunion correction.
Is Minimally Invasive Bunion Surgery Right for You?
If bunion pain is affecting your daily life, minimally invasive bunion surgery may be the right choice. Schedule a consultation with Dr. Watkins to evaluate your condition, discuss your treatment options, and determine whether you're a candidate for this advanced approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
Traditional bunion surgery involves a larger incision, opening the joint, and more extensive hardware to hold the correction in place. Our minimally invasive approach achieves the same anatomic correction through smaller incisions, without entering the joint, and with significantly less hardware—leading to less pain, faster recovery, and lower risk of needing a second surgery.
Immediately. Patients are able to bear weight and walk the same day as their procedure.
Because our approach uses 66% less hardware than other commonly performed techniques, the risk of needing a follow-up procedure for hardware removal is significantly reduced compared to traditional methods.
While every patient heals differently, many patients return to normal activities sooner than with traditional open bunion surgery, thanks to reduced tissue disruption and immediate weight-bearing status.