Surgical treatment of hammertoe deformity (a literature review)

Aim. To trace developmental origins of surgical treatment of hammertoe deformity and determine the most commonly used methods of its correction based on the published literature analysis. Material and methods. Publications from Google search, electronic databases PubMed, Google Scholar, archives of specialized journals and other relevant sources of scientific and medical information were analyzed. Results. The article covers the developmental origins of surgical treatment of hammertoe deformity both in the historical aspect and at the current level. Attention is paid to soft tissue procedures including tendons, metatarsophalangeal joint capsule, and plantar plate. An overview of operative interventions on the bone apparatus, phalanges and metatarsal bones and the combination of these surgeries is also presented in the article. The disadvantages of the existing surgical treatments, their advantages and the ways for forthcoming research concerning the improvement of surgical care in the treatment of hammertoe deformity are identified. Conclusions. The choice of a particular method of surgical correction between the phalangeal or metatarsal level, the feasibility of combining these interventions with restoring the integrity of the plantar plate and tendon reconstruction, remains debatable. Further study on these issues is a crucial task today for choosing the optimal method of hammertoe deformity correction.