The best references: the experience of our patients!

The big toe is crooked, the ball of the foot protrudes outwards, with a hallux valgus the forefoot deforms. In many cases it leads to inflammation, pain when walking. Often an surgical correction of the deformity cannot be avoided. The rbb Praxis presents a method in which screws are used which dissolve after a certain time.

At the Charité in Berlin, surgeons have been using magnesium screws for some time to fix the bone correction. The advantage: the MAGNEZIX^® magnesium screw dissolves within one to two years - and thus more slowly than lactic acid screws, which have been used in orthopaedics for quite some time. The bone therefore has enough time to heal; bone defects are less common. The metal does not have to be removed again afterwards; the patient is not required to undergo the second surgery. In addition, the screw has the advantage that magnesium only rarely triggers allergies. In this way, patients who are allergic to nickel and titanium can also be treated. In foot surgery at the Charité, doctors use magnesium screws in about one third of patients with a bunion to be operated on.

A frequently occurring and very common malposition of the big toe can be operated on: Hallux valgus is the painful misalignment of the big toe. Most women are affected - one cause are high-heeled shoes. But men might suffer too, as the present case from Vienna shows.

An operation can usually not be circumvented - it's a routine intervention. However, the use of the MAGNEZIX^® CS magnesium screw is a novelity with which Prof. Dr. Trnka has saved his patient from a second operation.

The big toe is twisted at an angle, the ball of the toe sticks out - in people with Hallux valgus, the front of the foot becomes deformed. In many cases, this gives rise to inflammation, and pain when walking. A surgical correction of the malposition is frequently unavoidable. This report from "rbb Praxis" introduces a patient in whom MAGNEZIX^® implants are used to correct her Hallux valgus, as these are particularly suitable for patients who are allergic to the metal screws commonly used.

The doctors at the Berlin Charité hospital have been using MAGNEZIX^® CS for some time to fix bony corrections. The advantage: The magnesium screw dissolves within one to two years - and thus slower than PLA screws, which have already been used for a long period of time in orthopedics. The bone has enough time to heal, there are rarer bone defects.

Stop. Life for Katy Kruse is primarily movement. The physically active Berlin management assistant has played volleyball for over 40 years, goes Nordic walking on Saturdays, and also likes to go swimming during the week. "I like to go into the mountains on my holidays", explains the slim 55-year-old, "My husband and I enjoyed daily walking tours on our holidays in the Frankenwald, Garmisch, or in Austria - until last year that is, when I had to stop after only an hour."

Symptoms. Katy Kruse felt the first signs of pressure after only 30 minutes. The lower joint of her right big toe then hurt more and more with every step she took. And when the tough lady then took off her hiking boots, she was shocked to see that the right foot was palpably swollen on the side and visibly reddened.

Predilection. "Hallux valgus - bunions - seem to be a family problem with us. My mother had to have an operation on her foot because of a bunion 20 years ago. And an orthopaedic surgeon also forbade me to wear high heels because of an initial deformation of the big toe!"

Pressure. Apart from a few unavoidable occasions, the sporting lady stuck to this advice for many years. "The cause of the currently rapidly increasing pain was a change in the load on her foot after a sporting accident when playing volleyball three years ago. To take the weight off my left foot, I shifted my body weight onto the right-hand side for longer periods of time. The foot was not able to withstand this pressure. The arch of the foot dropped and the ball of the foot got wider and wider. The big toe became increasingly bent."

Screws made of steel or titanium are frequently needed to stabilise the bone in surgical operations such as orthopaedic corrections or fractures. After a certain period of time, a second operation is necessary to remove the foreign body again. When using the so-called bio screws, this is no longer the case.

The article shows how Dr. Jaschke (Freiburg) corrected a pronounced hallux valgus  with MAGNEZIX^® so that his female patient can wear beautiful shoes again without pain.