Gallery of instruments and sterile dressings used at Deva Podiatry Foot Health Clinic, Chester.
The previous post of an extremely informative video produced by The College Of Podiatry https://cop.org.uk was a step by step process of the best practice procedure for a nail surgery in the United Kingdom.
For a Podiatrist, nail surgery is a procedure that is commonly carried out on disorders of the toenails. The most common disorders presented at Deva Podiatry Foot Health Clinic are as a result of severe trauma to the toe ( trauma), infection to the toe ( infectious) , inflammation to the toe ( inflammatory) , congenital ( present from birth).
Quite often I see people who have self diagnosed via an online search that is often very different to the actual condition present in, or on the foot.
Returning to Nail Surgery , following a thorough detailed pre-operative assessment you may be advised that nail surgery would be a suitable option. Your podiatrist at Deva Podiatry will discuss how next to proceed.
The following is a detailed description of a typical nail surgery procedure, as carried out by a podiatrist.
An ingrown toenail may present in different ways. and the presence of an infection, swelling redness and pus are common features of this condition. Following assessment the outcome may be to proceed to nail surgery, this may result in the removal of a small part of a nail or the whole nail depending on the severity. When undertaking nail surgery the affected area will be anaesthetised ( numbed) via a few injections in the toe that is affected.
The area will then be tested to ensure that the anaesthetic has fully worked, the sensation may feel strange and is described as " feeling movement" but nothing sharp.
The podiatrist will then prepare the area of your foot for the procedure.This will include cleaning your foot to provide as sterile an environment as is possible.
The application of a tourniquet helps to reduce the blood flow to the area. and enable the procedure to be undertaken. The podiatrist will then proceed to remove the section of nail that has been agreed with you at the assessment.
In the case of a partial nail avulsion, it is a single side of the nail, that is carefully and precisely cut out. It is then excised to remove the area of redundant nail that has been causing the inflammation and pain.
One option that a podiatrist will discuss with you is the introduction of a chemical that is applied to the area of the nail that has been removed and will stop that part of the nail growing back and causing you problems.
When it is all finished the tourniquet is removed and the blood supply returns to the toe.It is then dressed carefully with a sterile bandage and advise is given on keeping it clean and dry.
When there is an infection present you may have to start or need to start taking antibiotics to help with the heeling process.
At all stages along the way your podiatrist will involve you in deciding which is the best treatment plan.
Here at Deva Podiatry we are keen to ensure that you receive the most attentive aftercare. As part of the treatment plan we encourage you to return to the clinic on 3 occasions post surgery. At each appointment your operation site will be examined dressings are removed, the site of the operation cleansed and fresh sterile dressings applied.
update 25th July 2020
This post was originally created in early February 2020 , a period now known as Pre- Covid. As a profession podiatry is renowned for its high standards and in May 2020 our governing organisation The College Of Podiatry introduced new standards to deal with the post Covid world.
We follow those standards and have in place a Covid-19 policy which can be viewed here.
Over time the covid policy will be amended in line with government guidelines it was felt that for the purpose of this blog post references to elements of it could be outdated hence the belief that the direction to the actual policy will ensure relevance.