Post-Operative Recovery and Preparation for Ambulation after Foot and Ankle Surgery

This is a review article that focuses on patient self-recovery, pain modulation without pain medication, edema control and preparation for ambulation after a foot or ankle surgery both elective and traumatic surgical procedures. The available evidence and literature review were limited due to the few studies that are devoted to this area of focus. This review article takes a comprehensive and prescriptive perspective into strategies of the aftermath of the physiological and psychological effects on the body, specifically the lower extremity after foot or ankle surgery. Some of these strategies include initial edema control, nutrition, scar massage and reduction of non-mobile skin from the surgical incision within the surgery. A review of the theory of prehabilitation and examples of therapeutic exercises are explained within the article which target important proximal gait muscles needed for ambulation which can be conditioned with the foot and ankle in a CAM boot or a cast.