During summer in Houston, you can become very familiar with water hoses. Even with periods of heavy rain, once the sun comes out and the temps hover in the upper 90s, the soil can dry out quite quickly. Your vegetable garden and flower pots won’t get much life-giving water if you’re standing on the hose, though. The constriction from your weight blocks the flow, just as compression on a nerve in your foot or ankle will stop the flow of electrical stimuli passing through it. You can step off the hose, but nerve decompression surgery may be needed to fully relieve symptoms of a pinched nerve.

When is this procedure necessary? Although it is used to treat symptoms of neuropathy, not everyone who has the condition is a candidate for the surgery. Some specific prerequisites have to be met first:

• You need to have tingling, burning, numbness or pain that is not addressed with other conservative treatments.
• The problems must be serious enough to limit activity or increase your risk of falls, foot sores, or amputations.
• There must be one or more specific spots where the nerve is obviously pinched (we test for this).
• You cannot have any other issues which would make a surgical procedure too risky (for example, certain heart or immune system problems).

If you have neuropathy because of diabetes or some other medical cause, you should already be seeking foot care from our office. A good foot care plan and regular visits are the best way to ward off a whole host of complications from nerve damage and poor circulation. We provide many types of conservative treatment—from diet counsel, to nerve conduction testing, to orthotics, to laser treatment for damaged nerve tissue.

We can also let you know when it is time to consider nerve decompression surgery. When done right, the procedure has a high success rate for returning normal feeling and function to the nerves in your feet and toes. This not only makes you able to enjoy life again, it also decreases your risk of falls or non-healing wounds that could eventually lead to amputation.

You can reach Parker Foot & Ankle in Houston at (281) 497-2850 to set up a time to discuss your condition and what is best to be done. 40 years of experience and the latest in new technology and skills make us the place to come for all nerve-related issues in your feet and ankles.