Pre- and Post-Operative Relationship between Radiological Measures and Clinical Outcomes in Women with Hallux Valgus

The surgical correction of a hallux valgus (HV) deformity improves radiological parameters and clinical outcomes. However, it is not known how these improvements are related between themselves. In this retrospective study, 73 women were assessed preoperatively and 60 months after HV surgical correction. Several radiological parameters were measured: the hallux valgus angle (HVA), I–II intermetatarsal angle (IMA) and sesamoid position. The functional outcomes were assessed using the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) Hallux Metatarsophalangeal-Interphalangeal (HMI) scale, and patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) were recorded with the Manchester–Oxford Foot Questionnaire (MOXFQ). A pre–post-surgery comparison of radiological and clinical values was performed, the correlation among them was studied and the differences pre–post-surgery in the radiological measurements compared with those for the clinical outcomes were studied. The results show that all the radiological parameters, functional outcomes and PROMs improved significantly from their pre-operative values to the follow-up values. Multivariate regression analysis showed a significant relationship (p < 0.001) between the differential pre–post-surgery AOFAS scoring only with two sesamoid position differential pre–post-surgery measures: position of medial sesamoid (PMS) and translation of the first metatarsal head (TMH). However, no significant association was observed between the pre–post-surgery radiological differences and the pre–post-surgery MOXFQ scoring.