Why Do Orthopaedic Surgeons Choose to Specialize in Foot and Ankle Problems?

Well, I can only speak for myself. My reasons started with my grandmother who developed gangrene of the toes. It was initially treated by podiatrists who performed ten or twelve small operations which they explained would solve the problem. By the time my family realized that this wasn’t the case, the gangrene was advanced, and an orthopaedic and vascular surgeon told us that the only thing that could be done at this point was for the legs to be amputated; this stuck in my mind.

I was nine years old when my grandmother died, but as I grew older I was fascinated with orthopaedics and I had a particular fascination with foot and ankle problems.

Most orthopaedic doctors do not like foot and ankle problems because they represent some of the most difficult problems to treat. Most orthopaedic doctors who are considered experts in other areas like sports medicine and joint replacements do not know how to treat foot and ankle problems. They do not do foot and ankle surgeries and in fact will send these problems
elsewhere. Why?

Foot and ankle problems are a distinct area of practice. If you don’t deal with them on a daily basis you really typically don’t always understand the intricacies of how to safely take a patient through conservative and operative treatments and heal them up. When a person who has developed problems in their feet after thirty, forty, fifty years of usage often the problem can be helped significantly but can’t be totally 100% fixed. Knowing how to guide a patient to get the best result but to also explain to them that sometimes
perfection can’t be expected is an important part of understanding this field.

For seventeen years and many thousands of surgical and non-surgical pro-cedures later, my skills have been honed, verified, and recertified. If you want to be in the best of hands, come to me.

Myles Rubin Samotin M.D.
Board Certified Othopaedic Surgeon
Fellowship Trained in Foot & Ankle

Please contact our office if you have the need at 239-514-4200.
We will treat you like family and will do our best to give you the best care possible.