Surgical treatment of Freiberg's infraction in athletes

Ten patients with 11 cases of Freiberg's infraction were studied retrospectively. The patients had varying amounts of sports participation. All cases were treated surgically, most after some form of nonoperative intervention. Surgery consisted of metatarsophalangeal joint debridement, except in 1 patient where the metatarsal head was resected. All patients had improvement of their symptoms and 80% of normal joint range of motion was restored. No patient had joint space narrowing or major arthritic changes on follow-up roentgenographic studies.