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What advice should be offered to a patient who is determined to 'modify' her feet by having 2.5cm studs inserted through the inter-metatarsal spaces and the webbing pierced and stretched?
Don't travel if airports are likely to figure in the schedule? :)
On a serious note, it's very difficult to see how this person is not going to end up with infection. One entrance hole, one exit hole, several layers within the foot which are compartmented off by fascia, and mechanical movement of the stud during walking.
No, on balance - of course she's going to end up with infection!
Cheers,
David
Very interesting photo, indeed! I was just imagining the potential for therapeutic tretment that patients could be afforded if they would simply accept, as a condition of treatment, that metallic pins would need to be embedded permanently into their feet. Plantar fasciitis could be relieved by securing transversely mounted bone pins in the plantar calcaneus to pins in the proximal phalanx of the hallux and lesser digits and then attaching a steel cable between the calcaneus and hallux/digits to off-load the fascia. Hallux valgus could be corrected with a pin driven into the hallux that could be attached by a cable which is attached to another pin in the medial first metatarsal head. The possibilities are endless!!
I'm sure the plaintiff's attorneys in the States would be drooling on themselves if any podiatrist advocated that a patient put a pin like this in their foot. Wait until she gets green pus oozing out of her plantar foot and develops a deep space infection: who will she be blaming for this "problem"?!
__________________
Sincerely,
Kevin
**************************************************
Kevin A. Kirby, DPM
Adjunct Associate Professor
Department of Applied Biomechanics
California School of Podiatric Medicine at Samuel Merritt College
......securing transversely mounted bone pins in the plantar calcaneus to pins in the proximal phalanx of the hallux and lesser digits and then attaching a steel cable between the calcaneus and hallux/digits........a pin driven into the hallux that could be attached by a cable which is attached to another pin in the medial first metatarsal head. The possibilities are endless!!
Kevin,
Careful now - you could be starting a new trend here! Gives new meaning to the term Kirby-Grip, huh?
Best wishes
Mark
Last edited by Mark Russell : 19th April 2005 at 07:42 AM.
An update on our little lady with the stud. Despite having ongoing problems with the initial piercing - infection and an inability to weightbear - this lady had another seven studs inserted to the remaining intermetatarsal spaces last week by her partner, who assures me that this type of piercing is becoming more popular - parents beware! I've also had some other foot/body modification photographs forwarded from a number of sources, including one which depicts what appears to be a rather unusual blade removal system.
Are you sure that the chap with the scalpel through his tongue had this performed voluntarily, or did he forget to pay his fee to his Private Podiatrist?
Body piercing is very much the norm among modern primitives and whilst no-one knows why they do it, it has certainly caused much concerns among the conservative medical specialities. No surprise there but the superior judgemental attitude expressed by clinicians is probably more shocking.
As to the bioethics of cosmetic surgery (piercing would fall into this catagory). the jury is likely to find no little real dilemmas, other than moral indignation and physician bias. Not quite the ideal characteristics of a carering profession. Seems the challenge of the 21st century is we have the (medical) technology and in our comsumer driven society may have to use it to appease those in free persuit of the body beautiful.
Just come back from a Sexology conference in San Francisco giving a lecture on the role of shoe design in preventing unwanted pregancy and STDs in the middle ages (in Occidental and Oriental Society). My paper fell in the BD S&M (Bondage Dominance Slave & Master) section and there were obviously a lot of sextherapists and users in the audience. Felt quite amused to be classed as weird by that particular community albeit I did find the BD S&M folks to be refreshingly honest and a trusting buch of people. Something which did tickle me was the debate surrounding the education of Dominatrix as opposed to poorly trained masseus with a whip.
I have a paper pending in the UK on the subject of bioethics of toe cutting which explores some of the moral aand theical issues which podiatrists face when dealing with bazaar requests for cosmetic surgery as well as working with communities of people living with psychological and psychosexual pathologies.
Thanks for the posting Mark and very intersted to see the judgemental responses. As a profession should we be so judgmental of other people?
Something which did tickle me was the debate surrounding the education of Dominatrix as opposed to poorly trained masseus with a whip.
I understand there are proposals to table legislation for regulating the sex industry State-side. The slaves could be grand-parented with regular CBT - sorry CPD sessions? Career change anyone?
Last edited by Mark Russell : 11th May 2005 at 06:59 AM.
Foot Modification
I thought it was a BB
Linear Mode
