Heel Pain Specialty Clinic of Canada
                                                                                                                                                              www.HeelPain.ca
                                                                                                                                                                    

 

The Heel Pain Specialty Clinic of Canada is a division of the Achilles Foot Health Centre, a 3,800 square-foot facility located in the Guildford section of northern Surrey in British Columbia, Canada. 

We are owned and operated by Dr. S. A. Schumacher, a podiatrist (foot specialist) board certified in foot surgery by both the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and the American Board of Podiatric Orthopedics and Primary Podiatric Medicine.

The home of the Heel Pain Specialty Clinic within the Achilles Foot Health Centre.

 

We are the largest podiatric foot-care specialty facility in western Canada, and strive to be the leader in providing patients with the highest level of health care and state-of-the-art technology difficult to impossible to find elsewhere. For instance:

Our facility is equipped with multiple consultation and general treatment rooms and a physiotherapy room.  We also have a biomechanics room complete with a treadmill for gait analysis and a casting room, so we can make custom-made orthotic devices, braces, shoes, boots, and sandals to control or correct many mechanical abnormalities.

We also have a large "Foot Pharmacy" with a variety of foot-related health products, such as compressive stockings, crutches, bandage materials, braces, night splints, innersoles, and other products.

If patients require imaging, our facility is unique in having a top-of-the-line mini C-arm fluoroscope to image bone structures. 

Fluoroscopes are a specialized form of X-ray that allow the physician to visualize the patient's bones.  You can actually see how your bones move, in real time, on a television-like screen. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OEC 6600 Mini C-arm fluoroscope


Esaote diagnostic ultrascound

We also have diagnostic ultrasound equipment (a specialized way to image soft tissues like tendon, muscle, and fascia.) 

Our facility is also unique in being equipped with a Wolf Piezoson 100 Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy machine.  Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy, or ESWT, is a very specialized treatment where very intense, but very short sound waves into the body to promote healing of both soft tissue and bone.   


The technology is quite analogous to lithotripsy, the technique used to break up kidney stones without surgery. 

The Piezoson 100 machine we use is, in our opinion, the best version of ESWT available anywhere in the world.  It covers both low and high energy settings, and it is, by far, the most precisely-focused version of ESWT in the world.  

We are the only facility in western Canada with this technology.  In fact, the machine we use is still so new that there are no facilities offering this version of ESWT anywhere in the US.  And we are also one of the very few ESWT facilities anywhere in the world specializing in foot problems.

We are please to report that success rates (as determined by the patients) with this treatment is approximately 80%.  And this is in chronic cases of heel pain that haven't resolved through conservative means.   

For more information on extracorporeal shock wave therapy, please visit our website, www.ShockWaveTherapy.ca.

Our facility also houses a complete surgical suite with state-of-the-art equipment for virtually any foot surgery.  

And as Dr. Schumacher is board certified in foot surgery by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery, he has the expertise to perform both traditional, minimal incision, and new, cutting-edge surgical techniques.   

For instance, our facility is also equipped with innovative surgical instrumentation such as cryosurgery equipment.  Cryosurgery is a form of surgery done with very small incisions that employs extreme cold to treat chronic pain, such as plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, and neuromas.  The cold is applied in a very controlled, very precise manner to painful nerve fibers in order to permanently alleviate pain. 

The procedure is performed under local anesthetic, and the patient is able to walk post-operatively.  And because the incisions for cryosurgery are very small, the technique is relatively non-traumatic compared with other sorts of foot surgery.  So most patients have very little in the way of issues post-operatively.  They are able to walk immediately. 

Success rates for cryosurgery are also above 80%.  And again, this treatment is only performed in the worst cases, after conservative measures have failed. 

We are the first facility in Canada to offer this technology, and one of just a handful across North America.  For more information on cryosurgery, visit our website, www.Cryosurgery.ca. 

We also perform radiosurgery for certain conditions.  This is a state-of-the-art instrument where the surgical procedure may be  performed without having to use any cutting instruments at all.  The procedure is performed completely with radiowaves.    

For more information on this, please visit our website, www.radiosurgery.ca. 

When indicated, Dr. Schumacher is also trained to perform traditional and minimal incision surgery.

Patients will be comforted to know that Dr. Schumacher is Board Certified in foot surgery by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and holder of Diplomate status with that organization and is also a Fellow in the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons.