People experience tarsal tunnel all day every day, but I am writing to warn people about having tarsal tunnel surgery. The success rate is fairly poor for a surgery. Success rates in the literature are rated between 44-96%. The literature on file indicates if you have symptoms that are longer than one year, your chances for success are worse. Unless your surgeon is able to explain to you what is causing your tarsal tunnel, such as a ganglionic cyst, then the chances of success are even worse.
Now a lot of people want to get a surgeon who is experienced at Tarsal Tunnel and while in theory that is a great idea, a surgeon that does a lot of Tarsal Tunnel surgery will probably over diagnosis tarsal tunnel. If a surgeon says he does maybe one or two a month, that is the surgeon you want. That means he is using discretion in how often he performs. Honestly, once every six months is ideal. Very few people should have Tarsal Tunnel surgery in general. It;s a bad idea and over diagnosed.
By the way, if you are reading this article after a failed surgery this is a good article to read:
This is another article I wrote about the misconceptions of Tarsal Tunnel Surgery:
If you want to watch videos of actual Tarsal Tunnel Surgery done correctly check this out:
Another question is who should do my Tarsal Tunnel Surgery? Should it be a Podiatrist or an Orthopedic surgeon? On this I come down on the side of the Podiatrist. Most of your articles and literature in reference to Tarsal Tunnel Surgery is in the Pediatric Community. In general terms Orthopedists do not see Tarsal Tunnel as often as Podiatrists.
Again, I cannot emphasize this enough. The success rate of Tarsal Tunnel surgery is not great. If your surgeon tells you otherwise then you probably need a different surgeon.
If you are seriously considering Tarsal Tunnel Surgery and looking for as much information as humanly possible, this is a book that provides more detail than I could ever hope to provide in an article.