LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Carrollton resident Nathan Hunt was facing the possibility of getting his foot amputated due to a bone condition.
However, he continued to look for other options and found Dr. Carl Kihm, a doctor of podiatric medicine at the Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville, who was able to give him the treatment he needed and save his foot.
Hunt was diagnosed with diabetes about eight years ago and lost feeling to his feet because of it, a condition called neuropathy. This started to cause issues for him.
“My ankle was laying sideways,” Hunt said.
This was happening because Hunt had a fracture to his left ankle that had shifted its alignment. This issue impacted several aspects of his life.
Hunt said he, “couldn’t work no more, couldn’t walk to my car anymore after work, couldn’t walk in my house after work so it was bad.”
Hunt started going to podiatrists in 2022 to try and deal with the problem, but was not coming up with answers. During that time, Hunt’s stepfather told him that a doctor had said he should get his foot amputated. That’s when he met Dr. Kihm in October of last year.
“When he came in, we got our initial x-rays and we saw this was much worse than a sprain or a fracture,” Kihm said. “This was broken. He was walking on this for several weeks at this time.”
Had Hunt continued to not get treatment for his ankle, he could have developed Charcot to his ankle joint, which can lead to the joints collapsing and causing permanent damage. This condition can lead to needing an amputation.
Shortly after going to Kihm, Hunt went in for surgery. To help with the healing of his ankle after surgery, he uses Exogen. It’s an ultrasound bone stimulator from the company Bioventus. The stimulator is used for at least 20 minutes a day in the comfort of his home.
“The Exogen is a low-intensity pulse ultrasound, and this is a specific wavelength and frequency that creates a vibration to the bone surface,” Kihm said. “It attracts other cells that help the bone healing process to speed up and enhance bone healing.”
Between the surgery and Exogen treatments, Hunt has been able to get back to some sense of normalcy.
“I’m standing up straight and my ankle doesn’t lay sideways, so that’s one good thing,” Hunt said. “The pain is a lot better than what it used to be.”
One in every 20 bone fractures may not heal properly, according to Bioventus. Exogen has been used by more than one million patients around the world in the over 25 years since it was created.