There is another group of physicians who say it’s better to treat flat foot sooner rather than later. The entire body rests on the ankle and heel bones. Their alignment and stability is what determines whether the foot is stable and aligned, or unstable and misaligned. The ankle bone (talus) should be located on the top of the heel bone (calcaneus). Located between the two bones is a naturally occurring space called the sinus tarsi. The sinus tarsi canal should always stay in an open position as indicated by the arrow in the picture to the right. Ankle bone displacement is a common condition. You can not acquire it with age. It is something you are born with. It can occur every time you place weight on your foot. The weight of your body causes the ankle bone to displace from its normal position, shift forward and angle downward. There are two types of ankle bone displacement—flexible and rigid. There is no medical evidence that a partially dislocated ankle bone (misaligned foot) will correct itself. This means that a child who is born with misaligned feet will not “out-grow” this condition. In fact, the opposite is true. A misaligned foot won’t get better, it will get worse. This is because excessive forces from everyday movement (standing, walking, running, etc.) continue to push the ankle bone out of alignment. The ligaments, tendons, and muscles in the foot cannot tighten-up to realign and stabilize the ankle bone.
Ankle bone instability is something that is seen in childhood. Unfortunately, most parents and children are told that it is nothing to be concerned about and that the child will just outgrow this condition. Again, a displaced ankle has never been proven to “fix” itself. It doesn’t get better with time, it gets worse. Not all ankle bone displacements will end up as severe as this one to the right, but are you will to gamble it won’t?
How can we realign and stabilize the ankle bone? Conservative, external measures cannot and have not been proven to realign and stabilize the ankle bone.There have been many aggressive internal surgical procedures that have been tried. Unfortunately, the cure can be worse than the disease with these options.These procedures are associated with a long recovery, many potential risks and complications. Most patients will have to be brought back to the operation room to remove painful pins or screws. There has to be a better option! HyProCure has been safely and effectively in thousands of pediatric and adult patients since 2004. HyProCure is the only extra-osseous talotarsal stabilization device that works with the normal bio-mechanics unlike other devices that work against the normal function and often lead to failure of the device. EOTTS is an internal correction for an internal problem.
