Neuroma surgery
There are many forms of conservative, nonsurgical treatments for neuromas. In medicine, whenever there are multiple treatments for a problem, you can easily conclude that not all of them work for every patient. If there was one treatment that worked for everyone, we would not need so many treatments.
On this website, we have listed many conservative, nonsurgical treatments. When those fail, the next step is to try minimally invasive procedures for neuroma. We have written extensively on three of these.
The following list of treatments are usually exhausted prior to recommending invasive neuroma surgery. This is not a comprehensive list of all treatments, however, these are the most common treatments that we perform prior to surgery.
Treatments that fail prior to recommending neuroma surgery:
- Nonsurgical neuroma treatments
- Medications
- Oral NSAIDs
- Topical NSAIDs
- Oral steroids
- Injectable steroids
- Topical steroids
- Biomechanical treatments
- Strapping
- Padding
- OTC insoles
- Custom molded orthotics
- Shoe gear modification
- Physical therapy treatments for neuroma
- Medications
- Minimally invasive neuroma surgery
Types of neuroma surgery
When non-surgical treatments and minimally invasive surgical treatments fail, the next step in the treatment of neuromas is open surgery. There are two main types of surgery for neuroma.
Nerve decompression, external neurolysis
The first, is called nerve decompression surgery or external neurolysis and involves alleviating the forces on the nerve that cause it to become inflamed and painful. This type of surgery does not remove the nerve. It addresses the tissues around the nerve.
Neuroma excision, neurectomy procedure
The second kind of open surgery for neuroma involves removing the nerve. This is called a neuroma excision or a neurectomy procedure and it is performed by removing the neuroma and some of the healthy nerve attached to it.