-: Hello, my name is Dr. Maryann Hartzell.
I am a podiatrist, a foot and ankle specialist.
As a podiatrist, I treat all aspects
of foot and ankle injuries and maladies.
I treat everything from people who would have problems
with ingrown toenails,
fungal nails,
to people that need ankle reconstructive work.
People that have forefoot injuries
or have bunion deformities,
they are generally treated conservatively
until which time the pain is enough
that renders surgical intervention.
And we treat them through the surgery.
I perform the surgery, and then afterwards,
rehab them until they are back
to their ideal
pre-injury state.
A bunion is a functional deformity
of the big toe joint.
It is the joint behind the big toe,
and often times people develop bunions
from problems with biomechanics in their feet,
which is how the foot acts in terms of a functional unit.
So if the foot is overly flattened
or you have too much motion in that joint,
you tend to develop
an issue of that joint.
And it can be inflamed and gets very painful,
and it can happen in men or women.
You can have a problem fitting into shoes,
and they determine that they desire surgical intervention.
And they come to us, and we fix it.
I actually have a partner.
He and I work together at Advanced Podiatry Associates.
We have two different offices,
and we treat pediatrics to geriatrics
and everything in between,
anything from ingrown nails and warts
in a three year old to toenail fungus in a 90 year old
or a 102 year old, I believe is my oldest patient.
I also spend a day at St. Luke's University
Health System's Wound Care Centers.
One is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and one is in Bethlehem.
And there, we treat wounds below the knee,
leg and foot wounds, many diabetic foot wounds
with advanced therapies to treat them
and things that you have great difficulty using
in your office, things that have advanced treatments,
like skin substitutes and things like that
to bring them to healing to save their limbs.