Plantar Fasciitis is a common condition, fortunately a very low percentage of plantar fasciitis treatments do not respond to conservative (non-surgical) treatments. But in those few conditions there is surgery for plantar fasciitis. While, there are many different procedures for plantar fasciitis, all of the procedures for the most part revolve around sectioning the medial section of the plantar fascia which decompresses the plantar fascia thus reducing the pain. Now, Plantar Fasciitis for the most part has a very high success rate. Somewhere about 80-90% of plantar fascia surgery is successful. However, there are complications that can be encountered in plantar fasciitis surgery. Below I have written about the most common complications that arise from plantar fasciitis surgery.
1. Lateral Column Syndrome- What happens in this condition is when the fascia is decompressed it leads to a destabilizing of the lateral side (column) of your foot. This will manifest itself as a dull pain over the lateral side of your foot when ambulating. The treatment for this is universally recognized as orthotics, and most of the time that will resolve the condition. Occasionally you may need physical therapy. On the bright side this complication does not require surgical management.
2. Infection– It is a risk in any surgery. However, there is very little risk of infection in plantar fascia surgery for a couple of reasons. The surgery is quick, lasting no more than fifteen minutes on average, and the incision tends to be small. So even if you do get infected since no hardware is involved in the surgery, the infection should be able to be cleared up with oral antibiotics.
3. Reoccurence– In other words the surgery fails, does not work. This is by FAR the most common complication. The best thing about this complication is it usually does not make your problem worse. It is more that your plantar fasciitis is the same. Basically, if the surgery fails you are back at square one, where you may need further conservative treatment or another surgery. The reasons plantar fasciitis surgery fail tends to be individual specific. They can vary from you not actually having plantar fasciitis, to a failure decompress the plantar fasciitis completely.