Levelling the Tread

Attention is drawn to a type of foot in which painful plantar callosities form under one or more metatarsal heads. The affected metatarsal heads are shown to be depressed, or dropped, and this dropping is not caused by toe deformities. 2. An operation is described which elevates a dropped metatarsal head by a wedge osteotomy through the base of the metatarsal. 3. The various deformities of the tread are described, and the possible causes of this condition are discussed. 4. It is stressed that corrective metatarsal osteotomy is not appropriate for patients with deformities of their toes, who require correction of the toe deformity.