Post Surgical Care - Ankle & Heel

After your ankle/heel surgery, the operative wound will be wrapped with bulky sterile gauzes, and a thin layer of coban or an elastic ace wrap. A below-the-knee plaster splint or a fiberglass cast will be applied. You will need to keep the cast dry. There are many way to keep the foot dry: take a bath and keep the affected foot dry, cover with a trash bag and apply duct tapes around the bag oppening. There is also a commercially available cast boot to keep the cast dry.

Do not put any weight of the affected foot - usually for about 3-6 weeks. Use crutches, wheel chair for ambulation.

You should try to keep elevate the foot above your heart level and applying ice pack to the back of your knee three times per day at 15 minutes each. This will help reducing the swelling in the ankle/foot!

Take your prescribed pain medication as soon as you arrived home. I normally prescribed either Vicodin or Darvocet N100 for postoperative pain. Take 1 to 2 tablets of Vicodin or Darvocet every 4-6 hours (be sure not to exceed 8 per days) for the first two days then only as needed. You can also take Motrin 800mg three times per day together with the Vicodin or Darvocet for synergistic effects to reduce pain.

Please note that pain medication such as vicodin may cause nausea, vomitting, or hallucination when taking in large dose. Let me know if this is affecting you.

Let me know if you have fever, chill, severes pain which is not controllable with pain medications, dusky or color changes to your toes.

Sutures or skin stapples are generally removed in 2 weeks. I normally take xray picture of your ankle/heel every 3-4 weeks to assess for healing. This will determine whether you are ready to transition to a below-the-knee walking cast, and then a removeable cast walker.

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