The Foot

This book guides the reader on a rational pathway from anamnesis and clinical examination (with supporting illustrations), through radiological screening to the appropriate surgical solution. Proposed treatments and treatment results at about one year of follow-up are described in detail with the aid of intra- and postoperative photographs and radiographs. The text is limited to systematic description, and numerous references are included to the earlier parts of the book in order to clearly link the preoperative evaluation to the treatment. It is particular to the surgical correction of foot and ankle pathology that the treatment is nearly always "composite" or complex, in that it entails several separate actions. Thus, surgical correction often has one or more structural components (e.g., osteotomy, arthrodesis) and one or more functional or motor components. It is the aim of the book to explain the effect and rationale of every one of these single “actions”. ​

Kaj Klaue completed his Federal Diploma of Human Medicine at CHUV Lausanne in 1978 and subsequently gained his PhD thesis from the University of Basle. Dr. Klaue began his studies of the locomotor system as a research fellow at the Laboratory for Experimental Surgery, Davos, under the direction of S.M. Perren, performing multiple projects in vitro and in vivo, mainly on sheep. The rational context linking mechanical evidence with the biological response has always been dominant in his experimental and later clinical work. Dr. Klaue’s early work involved morphological analysis of the hip joint and optimization of reorientation osteotomies of the acetabulum, but his interest then turned to foot and ankle surgery. His fields of research have included development of a computerized 3-D imaging system for diagnostic purposes in orthopaedics and pre-operative simulation of corrective means, development of fixation plates, and improvement of foot and ankle reconstruction techniques; he is the holder of 15 patents. From 1993 to 2006 Dr. Klaue was a member of the Foot and Ankle Expert Group of the AO Technical Commission (AOFAEG). He currently works as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Clinica Luganese, Lugano, Switzerland. Dr. Klaue is a member of the editorial boards of Foot and Ankle Surgery and Revue de Médecine et Chirurgie du Pied.