Treatment of hallux valgus in China

This is a review of the treatment of hallux valgus based on the paper material submitted to the First and Second Sino-American Conferences on Foot Disorders held in Beijing in 1987 and 1990. The data consisted of 676 cases (979 feet) from 10 major hospitals in China. There were 122 men and 554 women, giving a male to female ratio of 1:45. Sixty-nine (10%) cases had a family history of hallux valgus and 120 cases (18%) were associated with hammer toe deformity. The age ranged from 16-85 years with an average of 42. Among the 412 female cases (78.5%) at the age of 20-35, 339 (82.3%) had the history of wearing high heeled and narrow tipped shoes. Osteoarthritis changes of the first M-P joint were seen in 31 cases, all above the age of 60. 615 cases (90.9%) were treated surgically for pain relief and only 25 cases (3.7%) at the age of 20-30 had the deformity corrected for cosmetic purpose. The surgical procedures employed were bunionectomy (Silver's operation, 39 feet), Keller's operation (344 feet), McBride's operation (239 feet) and a variety of osteotomies of the first metatarsal (295 feet). Joplin and Lapidus operations were used by one author in 5 and 2 cases respectively. Overall excellent and good results were obtained in 609 cases (90%) during the follow-up of 1-14 years.