Treatment of Freiberg's Disease with Joint Debridement and Reshaping of Metatarsal Head

Yoon, Jun Ho; Park, Su Sung; Kim, Eu Gene; Lee, Chang Won

Abstract

Freibergs disease is avascular necrosis of the second or third metatarsal bone. Since 1914, numerous causes and treatments have been proposed but no definite single cause and treatment method were developed. The simple method, joint debridement could not recover the pathophysiologic condition of Freibergs disease and the destructive method, metatarsal head resection and prosthetic replacement arthroplasty had many postoperative problems. Recently, dorsiflexion osteotomy, which was described by Gauthier and Elbaz for the first time, and joint debridement and reshaping of the metatarsal head, which was described by Mann, were very effective method to manage Freibergs disease. This paper was aimed to evaluate the result of joint debridement and reshaping of the metatarsal head which were relatively simple, less destructive and safe method in treatment of the advanced Freibergs disease. We treated 7 cases of Freibergs disease from August 1993 to March 1997. The results were as follows: 1. All the patients of the last follow-up improved pain. 2. The passive range of motion was increased from 39.1 preoperatively to 57.6 postoperatively. 3. Follow-up X-rays showed no loose body and further metatarsal head destruction. The above results suggested that the joint debridement and reshaping of metatarsal head provided good result in the treatment of advanced Freibergs disease.