Optimal Analgesia for Forefoot Surgery

Forefoot surgery, including Scarf-Akin osteotomy surgery for bunion correction, is moderately painful orthopaedic surgery, commonly performed as a day-case procedure. Admission for opiate analgesia constitutes a failure of management and financial disadvantage to the healthcare organisation. The investigators seek to establish which technique will result in the best analgesia out of ankle block, metatarsal block, or a combination of the two. As analgesia constitutes part of a return to function, an additional aim is to determine whether either of these approaches will result in an objective functional benefit to the participants. The trial seeks to recruit 23 patients into either of 3 groups: Ankle + sham metatarsal; sham Ankle + metatarsal; Ankle + Metatarsal.