Surgical treatment of adolescent hallux valgus

During the past 7 years, we performed corrective osteotomy at the distal part of the first metatarsus for 11 hullux valgus deformities of 7 adolescent patients (one male and 6 female) under the age of 18 years old. The age distribution at the surgery ranged from 13 to 18 years (av. : 15.7 years). All patients had complained of the disturbance of daily activity due to pain at Mp joint of great toe. Their symptoms had showed resistant to any- conservative treatments for more than three months. We analysed the postoperative clinical and roentogenological results of the patients at 18.7 months (ranging from 4 months to 5 years and 5 months) after the operation. Hallux valgus deformities improved postoperatively from 29.6° to 13.1° in hallux valgus angle, from 11.5° to 6.5° in M1 - M2 angle. There were no recurrence of deformity, and patient's subjective satisfaction showed 86%. From the above, we concluded that surgical teratment may be satisfactory procedure for hallux valgus deformity even in adolescent patints.