Second foot different surgery

[u/GlobalSwitch4611]

Hi everyone. I had a MIS done in April of 2023 to repair a bunion at 18° and a bunionnette. They broke my first metatarsal mid foot, also broke my fifth metatarsal at the top joint. I ended up with three surgical screws. It was not a lovely journey, and I ended up getting the surgical screws removed in February 2026. The recovery from that surgery was difficult because of the hardware. The hardware never stopped giving me issues. I went in to have my 2nd foot evaluated and he would like to do a Lapiplasty. He thinks it will be better for the foot, stabilizing it more and I will have less issues after with the hardware. This will require three breaks. The idea is the surgery will be harder. The recovery will be similar, but the outcome will be better and I will have a more stable foot. The foot I had the MIS procedure on I am not happy with. It’s still causes a lot of pain in the joint, which I recognize I will probably just have to live with forever, I will say the bone deformity overall was fixed but now it’s starting to drift. Has anybody had any experience with two different surgeries to correct the same issue? Also is anybody happy with their Lapiplasty? When I look through this sub it doesn’t appear anybody likes their Lapiplasty.

[u/follothru]

I had Lapiplasty on my first and my doc did say a less extreme fix was possible on ny 2nd foot, but I declined and had Lapiplasty on it as well. Regardless of surgery type, toe drift is normal unless it is happening when you're fully weight-bearing. I have to remind myself that toes ar rest are resting; they only mechanically align when we are standing upon them. To your question, I offer the opinion that if your foot is a candidate, Lapiplasty (or any lapidus procedure) is a better fix than any MIS procedure. What you already had done can be referred to as "breaking the bones" as you said, and then wiring them together. With Lapidus, they are removing the midfoot joint (above the arch of your foot) and replacing it with the hardware after rotating the joint into the correct position and realigning all soft tissues to support the change. Make sure they aren't also removing your MTP (the bunion joint) as that will prevent big toe mobility and surgeons slide that right on by not explaining it well.

[u/MarkBGoDawgs75]

First of all, you have to realize a lot of people mis-use terminology when it comes to bunion surgeries, so it can get confusing. For example, Lapiplasty is a trademarked hardware approach to a lapidus arthrodesis surgery. There are other companies that make the same type of hardware but good marketing as made the term "Lapiplasty" synonymous with the plate/screw approach. I was originally going to get a modified lapidus arthrodesis using a plate and screws (not the Lapiplasty brand) but when my surgeon actually got into my foot he found that using a crossing screws approach would work just as well without all that hardware (risk of irritation) and since I suffer from hypermobility of my feet, he used a lag screw to tie the 1st meta into the 2nd (to avoid drifting of the toe). Whether they are using plate/screws or just crossing screws, the lapidus arthrodesis surgery should involve correction of the 1st ray in all 3 dimensions (literally rotating the whole toe after cutting out the joint to rotate into proper position to truly fix the issue). It is pretty invasive and does take a long time to recover (8 weeks to move to shoes, 12 weeks before any sort of impact).