Papers of the Week

Midfoot arthritis causes chronic foot pain and significant impairment of daily activities. Although post traumatic arthritis and primary osteoarthritis are the most common pathologies encountered, surgeons need to rule out inflammatory causes and neuropathic aetiology before starting treatment. Steroid Injections are invaluable in conservative management and have diagnostic value in guiding surgical treatment. For the definitive surgical option of fusion there are a variety of fixation devices available. A successful union is linked to a satisfactory outcome which most authors report to be in the range of 90% following the key principles of careful patient selection, pre-operative planning, adequate joint preparation and a stable fixation.