Developments over the past few years have made this a particularly exciting time for outpatient foot surgery, says Scott VanValkenburg, MD, foot and ankle surgeon at Upstate Orthopedics Ambulatory Surgery Center in East Syracuse, New York.

“Almost every foot and ankle procedure we can do is listed by Medicare as an outpatient case,” VanValkenburg says. “If you have a strong anesthesia team that can provide a great peripheral nerve block, you can now do many foot and ankle procedures in the ASC. I try to do all of my cases on an outpatient basis that are not major ankle reconstructions or fusions.”