Minor podiatric surgery is a procedure carried out in the clinic itself under local anaesthetic, with no hospital admission. It is considered when the problem keeps coming back: a nail that becomes ingrown time after time because of its shape or the way it grows, or a skin lesion that does not settle however many times it is treated conservatively.
It is not the first step, and that is the important part. What leaves no mark is tried first —cutting and relieving the edge, orthoses, changes of footwear— because in many cases that is enough. Surgery is considered once that has been tried and the problem returns, and it is decided after examining the foot and explaining what is done, what it feels like and what aftercare is needed.
How it is approached
- Examination of the foot and a review of what has been tried and how it responded.
- An explanation of the procedure, the local anaesthetic and the aftercare.
- Questions about allergies, medication, diabetes and circulation problems.
- Carried out in the clinic, with no admission, and you walk out.
- Follow-up appointments until the area has healed.
Does the same nail become ingrown again and again even after treatment?
Book an appointmentFrequently asked questions
- Does the nail grow back afterwards?
- It depends on what is done, and that is explained to you before anything is decided. In some procedures only the part of the nail causing the problem is removed and the plate keeps growing; in others, precisely so the edge cannot dig in again, the area that edge grows from is treated, and the nail is then permanently narrower. Neither is "better" in the abstract: the choice depends on why it digs in and how many times it has come back. What you can expect is to know, before agreeing to anything, which part of the nail will remain and how the toe will look afterwards.
- I know it will come back. Why try other things first?
- Because conservative measures can be undone and a procedure cannot. Changing how you cut it, releasing the edge, adjusting footwear or fitting an orthosis leaves nothing permanent: if it does not work, time has been spent and nothing else. And in a fair number of cases it does work, because the cause was not the shape of the nail but something that could be corrected. Once that has been tried and the problem returns, the conversation changes and the surgical option starts to make sense — not as a resigned last resort, but as the reasonable decision once the reversible options are exhausted. If you arrive having been through all that, say so: how many times it has come back and what has been tried is exactly what needs to be known.
- What if I do not want surgery?
- Then there is no surgery. It is your decision and it needs no justification: it is offered as an option, not as an instruction to be accepted. What changes is the goal, which becomes living with the problem with as little pain as possible: reviews to remove the edge before it starts to hurt, work on footwear, and whichever measures reduce how often it comes back in your case. That is a legitimate approach and for a fair number of people it is the right one. What is worth knowing is that it means coming back regularly, and that if you change your mind at any point, the option is still there.
