`Pin can add some spring to flat feet`

By Kara McConnell
Herald News Intern

Jeannie Wheaton’s three-year-old daughter looked like she was abused. Bruises covered her body and her knees were scraped.

But Nicole Sciarrone, who turns four at the end of July, was neither beaten or abused. She had flat feet that hampered her ability to walk, and often resulted in falls and scraped knees. Ms. Wheaton, of Sharpsville, took her daughter to Dr. Anthony Rossi in Hermitage, who examined Nicole’s flat feet and said that he could perform a new procedure, an MBA prosthesis, which could enable the girl to walk, run and play without falling all of the time.

The procedure, created by Stephen Bancheau and Jerry Maxwell from Texas, consists of doctors inserting a tiny screw-like pin made of titanium into Nicole’s foot and into a small opening between the heel bone and another bone on top of it. The pin readjusts the talus, the part of the foot enabling Nicole’s feet to arch. Tissue normally grows around the pin to hold it in place, Rossi said.

The insertion of the prosthesis is normally an outpatient procedure which requires only local anesthesia, Rossi said.

Rossi said an alternative procedure for flat feet, orthopedic inserts for Nicole’s shoes, wouldn’t have been as effective.

“Dr. Rossi told us it (prosthesis) wouldn’t hurt her too much and it could help her walk,” Ms. Wheaton said.

Not only is the procedure relatively painless for the patient, the insertion can be removed if complications occur because there’s no drilling done in the foot, Rossi said. An X-ray can be done immediately to allow doctors to see whether the insertion set in properly. “It borders on being harmless,” he said, adding that no surgery can be totally harmless. “The best thing about this implant is that you have not changed the foot structurally,” said Eric Cooper, president of C.E.A. Medical of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, who trained Rossi in the procedure. If a problem would occur during the surgery, the doctor can take out the implant and the foot is back to square one, he said.

The implant costs about $900 and surgeons fees usually cost nearly $2,400, Cooper said, adding that insurance usually covers all costs of the procedure.

The old procedure, which consisted of drilling a hole into the foot and inserting a polyethylene implant, had a few complications such as infections, which put patients at risk, said Cooper. The polyethylene implant, which is a type of plastic, tended to flake inside the foot and caused infections, Cooper said.

However, the procedure isn’t for everyone suffering from flat feet because the patient must have a “flexible” flat foot, Rossi said.

If a patient has a rigid flat foot, it means a bone bridge inhibits the foots ability to arch. Once the bridge is removed, the implant can be then be inserted, Cooper said. It is estimated that 25 percent of people in the U.S. have flat feet, he said. And Cooper said that studies are being conducted to see if there is a connection between hip replacements and flat-footedness.

He said that researchers estimated that 50 percent of people with hip replacements may have flat feet, which is the problem.

“It is growing in leaps and bounds,” Cooper said about the new procedure.

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Updated July 17, 1999
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