Scarf osteotomy - Is it the procedure of choice in hallux valgus surgery? A preliminary report.

Many procedures are described in the literature for the surgical management of hallux valgus. There are over 130 surgical procedures described but the surgeon usually limits these to a few which he is comfortable with and which gives the best aesthetic and functional result to the patient. There is ever rising enthusiasm among orthopaedic surgeons regarding diaphyseal osteotomy ever since Burutaran described the procedure in 1973. Weil in United States and Barouk in Europe popularized the technique. Scarf is a double chevron diaphyseal osteotomy which is inherently more stable than other osteotomies on the first metatarsal and allows early return to work. The author reports his early experience with SCARF osteotomy, which is a comparatively new technique for hallux valgus correction which was done in Ibri Regional Hospital in the Sultanate of Oman. All patients who presented with symptomatic hallux valgus were taken up and there were three patients who required surgical intervention for hallux valgus. The purpose of this study was to find its effectiveness in terms of stability of the osteotomy and early return to work. Proximal phalangeal osteotomy was not found necessary in none of the three cases operated by us. Scarf osteotomy is safe and found to give better aesthetic and functional result and early return to work. All our three patients had good functional recovery and early return to work.