A prestigious national medical magazine, Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, has recently published an article authored by a Virginia Beach Orthopaedic surgeon, Blake E. Moore, M.D., with Atlantic Orthopaedic Specialists.

This groundbreaking study looked at how three of the most common operations to relieve foot pain worked, and yielded insights that could help both orthopaedic surgeons and their patients decide which of the nearly 100 metatarsal procedures will work best to relieve their foot pain.

A foot and ankle orthopaedics specialist, Moore researched and compared three common procedures most frequently performed by Orthopaedic surgeons to relieve forefoot pain in patients. The article appears in the December 2, 2015 issue of JBJS (Vol. 97-A, Num. 23) and is available on-line at the journal’s website.

“This study examines the effects of different commonly performed surgeries on forefoot pressures,” Moore explained. “The new research will help patients and surgeons make better informed decisions about the effects of different operations for the treatment of forefoot pain.”

Moore’s research involved a sophisticated and novel biomechanical model to document the changes in forefoot pressure after each of the three different surgeries performed to relieve a patient’s forefoot pain. The study also measured the impact of different Achilles tendon tension, showing how it affects several common foot and ankle pressures, pain and surgical outcomes.

Moore conducted research for this article while completing his fellowship in Foot & Ankle Surgery at Penn State’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa. He now specializes in Foot and Ankle Surgery at Atlantic Orthopaedic Specialists, a multi-specialty orthopaedic group located in Hampton Roads.