Minimally invasive vs. traditional bunion surgery.

If you’ve been reading about bunion correction for any length of time you’ve probably found a hundred articles that say MIS is the same as open surgery with smaller incisions. That’s not the whole story. The technique is genuinely different — and the day looks different because of it.

Incision size

Traditional: a 4–6 cm cut down the inside of the foot. MIS: two or three 3–5 mm punctures. Both correct the bone; only one leaves a visible scar a year later.

Anesthesia

Traditional bunion surgery is typically performed under regional block plus IV sedation in a surgery center. MIS at our office is local anesthesia only — you’re awake, you can watch, you go home the same hour.

Recovery time

The honest number for traditional surgery is 6–8 weeks before regular shoes and a longer window before unrestricted activity. For MIS, regular shoes at 3–4 weeks and unrestricted walking by week 6 is the typical curve. Runners are back to easy 5Ks at 6–8 weeks.

What MIS isn’t great for

Severe bunions with significant arthritis, complex revisions, and certain joint deformities still call for open techniques. Roughly 80% of the bunion patients we see are great MIS candidates; the other 20% get an honest answer that another approach is the right call.

The trade-off in one sentence

MIS trades the dramatic scar and the rough first month for a longer healing curve at the bone level — the recovery you feel is shorter; the bone takes about the same time to fully mature either way. Most patients gladly take that trade.