Foot Reconstruction

Since the conquest of the upright position, the foot has gained more importance as an organ that supports both the lower limb and the whole body weight and that allows humans to stand up, walk, run, jump, and climb. Human evolution determined progressive changes in both the skeleton architecture and the soft tissue of the foot to cope with the new environmental requirements. From the orangutan to the chimpanzee, from the gorilla to the human, the most important modifications of the skeleton included the progressive reduction of the distal area of the phalanxes with the loss of the grasping function and the enlargement of the proximal bones (astragalus, calcaneum) to obtain a resistant yet flexible structure. See the image below.