Three sub-specialty areas, one focus
Foot & ankle, limb reconstruction, and diabetic foot & reconstructions — each with its own sub-sections, backed by 27 years of clinical practice and 94 publications.
Foot & ankle, limb reconstruction, and diabetic foot & reconstructions — each with its own sub-sections, backed by 27 years of clinical practice and 94 publications.
Professor Heidari practises across the foot, ankle and lower limb — from sports-clinic Achilles repairs through to limb-salvage reconstructions referred from other centres. The work organises naturally into three sub-specialty areas, each with its own evidence base, theatre rhythm and multidisciplinary team.
Whether you’re a patient, a GP, or a colleague referring on for a second opinion, the route in is the same — a structured consultation, written impression, and a clear plan to take away.
End-to-end timelines, what’s in writing at each stage, and the team you’ll meet — with no surprises.
See the journeySecretary-led booking, fast-track for limb-threatening cases, written feedback on every patient referred.
Refer a patientIn-person at any of three central London consulting rooms.
Request a timeThe largest part of the practice — spanning weekend-warrior sports injuries, the full range of foot and ankle fractures, and the degenerative conditions that bring most patients through the door: bunions, arthritis, Achilles problems and stubborn heel pain.
The right operation for the right patient is rarely the most aggressive one. Most foot and ankle work is about restoring function with the smallest sensible step.
— Working principle
Diagnosis comes from listening first — the history almost always tells the story. Weight-bearing imaging confirms the picture; sometimes an injection-based test confirms the pain generator before any surgical conversation begins. The aim is the smallest intervention that restores the patient’s daily life.
For sports injuries, that often means arthroscopic work and structured return-to-sport rehab. For arthritis, it may mean joint preservation first, with fusion reserved for advanced disease. For bunions and forefoot deformity, the choice between keyhole, scarf and Lapidus techniques is matched to the underlying anatomy — not to surgeon preference.
A meaningful proportion of foot and ankle consultations end without surgery being recommended. That is a deliberate part of the practice.
One of 94 publications from Professor Heidari’s research catalogue — with a plain-English translation alongside.
The work that arrives when something has gone wrong elsewhere — deformity, length discrepancy, fractures that didn’t heal, fixation that failed, and bone infection that needs eradicating before anything definitive can be built. Often referred in by other surgeons.
Reconstruction begins where straightforward fixation has run out of options. The plan starts with the bone you have, not the bone you wish you had.
— Working principle
Reconstruction cases are planned, not improvised. The first consultation maps the deformity in three planes — coronal, sagittal, rotational — and asks what was tried before, why it didn’t work, and what the patient actually needs the limb to do. CT, long-leg alignment films and infection screens follow as needed.
Where indicated, computer-hexapod-assisted frame correction allows millimetric, multi-plane adjustment over weeks. PRECICE magnetic intramedullary nails offer internal lengthening for selected length discrepancies. Bone transport covers segmental defects after debridement of infected or non-union bone. Where soft-tissue cover is needed, work is staged jointly with the plastics team.
Bone infection sits inside this pillar — managed by the multidisciplinary Bone Infection team, with two-stage debridement, antibiotic-loaded spacers, free-flap cover and definitive reconstruction sequenced over the months it actually takes.
Frame-based correction of complex deformity — one of the techniques used in this pillar. Read the paper alongside its plain-English translation.
The most multidisciplinary work in the practice — collapsing Charcot feet, neuropathic ulcers, infected diabetic feet, and cases referred for a limb-salvage opinion. Managed jointly with diabetology, vascular and plastics colleagues.
The diabetic foot is rarely one problem. Salvage depends on the team around the patient as much as the operation itself.
— Working principle
The diabetic foot is staged. Early Charcot is offloaded and stabilised before structural collapse sets in; later Charcot is reconstructed with frames or internal fixation depending on the soft-tissue envelope. Neuropathic ulcers are worked up for the underlying mechanical cause — the wound is rarely the whole story.
For infected feet, two-stage debridement with antibiotic-loaded spacers and biopsy-driven antibiotics precedes any definitive reconstruction. Where soft-tissue cover or revascularisation is needed, planning happens jointly with plastic and vascular colleagues before any bone work begins.
Cases referred for a limb-salvage opinion are reviewed with care. Salvage is not always the right answer — but when it is, it needs a properly sequenced plan and the right team. That is what this part of the practice is set up to deliver.
One of the diagnostic problems that defines the early diabetic-foot consultation. Plain-English translation alongside the full paper.
