Results of endoscopic plantar fascia release.

BACKGROUND: Conservative treatment for plantar fasciitis usually provides improvement, but some patients progress to surgery. Open release is most commonly performed but is associated with prolonged recovery and complications. Endoscopic plantar fascia release (EPFR) has become popular recently. We present our results.

METHODS: Twenty patients (23 feet) had EPFR. Sixteen patients (19 feet) were available for followup after at least 1 year. Ten were women and 6 were men, with an average age of 44.7 (range 28 to 70) years. The average followup was 47 months. The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) Ankle-Hindfoot Scale and Maryland Foot Score were used for evaluation. Gender, obesity, severity, length of preoperative symptoms, and workers compensation (WC) status were studied.

RESULTS: The average AOFAS and Maryland scores improved postoperatively (66 to 88, p<0.05; 62 to 83, p<0.05, respectively). Women improved 25 (AOFAS) and 23 points (Maryland) points. Men improved 16 (AOFAS) and 17 points (Maryland) points. Obese patients improved 38 and 28 points, respectively. Normal weight patients improved 16 and 19 points, respectively. Postoperative scores for patients with high preoperative severity improved from 58 to 81 (AOFAS) and from 52 to 73 (Maryland). Patients with moderate preoperative severity achieved scores from 72 to 93 and from 70 to 91. Patients who had symptoms longer than 2 years before EPFR had lower postoperative scores. Non-WC patients improved 25 (AOFAS) and 24 (Maryland) points. WC patients improved 18 and 16 points, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: EPFR provides significantly improved patient outcomes. Patients with more severe symptoms before EPFR and those with symptoms for longer than 2 years had worse results. Obesity had no negative effect on outcome. WC patients had inferior results compared to non-WC patients. Women achieved better results than men. This finding may be biased because most WC patients were men.