Haglund’s deformity is a bony growth that develops on your heel bone, right where it attaches to your Achilles tendon. The bump on your bone is often large enough to be seen and felt through your skin. It’s often caused by wearing shoes with tight, stiff backs, such as high heels or dress shoes.
As long as it’s caught early on, Haglund’s deformity can often be effectively treated with conservative measures such as rest and footwear changes. However, in some cases, the bone can continue to grow and start to irritate your Achilles tendon, leading to additional foot conditions that can trigger debilitating heel pain, such as Achilles tendonitis or bursitis.
Many surgical techniques can remove the Haglund’s deformity and repair any Achilles tendon damage; however, many of them either aren’t super effective or require a very long recovery time. But a newly developed method known as SpeedBridge™ aims to address both of those problems.
Matthew Hinderland, DPM, Jordan Cameron, DPM, Trevor Whiting, DPM, and the rest of our team at the Foot and Ankle Institute of Colorado in Colorado Springs, Colorado, offer the SpeedBridge technique to fully repair your heel, effectively reduce pain, and quickly restore mobility.
We discuss what you need to know about Haglund’s deformity and this innovative corrective surgery in this month’s blog.
Haglund's deformity develops when too much pressure is put on your heel too often, leading to the overgrowth of bone. Because wearing tight-fitting shoes such as high heels is a top cause, the condition has earned the nickname “pump bump.”
However, other risk factors for developing Haglund’s deformity include having a tight Achilles tendon, high arches, or a tendency to walk on the outside of your foot.
When you first develop Haglund’s deformity, our Foot and Ankle Institute of Colorado providers generally recommend one or more of these treatments to reduce pain and keep the condition from getting worse:
If these aren’t enough to relieve pain, or if the deformity begins rubbing on your Achilles tendon and damaging it, surgery may become a necessity to restore mobility and heel function.
To properly treat your Haglund’s deformity with surgery, the growth on your heel bone has to be fully removed; otherwise, your symptoms will persist. However, to access the growth, your Achilles tendon has to be fully detached and then reattached.
Past surgical methods haven’t been completely successful in reconstructing the Achilles tendon after Haglund’s deformity removal, and that can result in needing to wait for up to three months before being able to put any sort of weight on your foot.
SpeedBridge was developed to address the need to fully detach the Achilles tendon and fully remove the Haglund’s deformity for successful surgical results. It provides a technique that uses much stronger surgical sutures and anchors to secure your Achilles tendon and encourage faster healing and recovery.
So far, results have shown that patients who’ve undergone surgery to treat their Haglund’s deformity can bear weight on their treated foot within 10 days of surgery and have significant improvements in pain and foot function after two years.
These findings prove that SpeedBridge is an incredibly appealing alternative to other surgical options currently available for treating Haglund’s deformity.
To learn more about your treatment options for Haglund’s deformity, including the SpeedBridge surgical technique, schedule a consultation with our team by calling our office or using our online booking feature today.
