: Why does Podiatry exist as a separate specialty? Are the feet really so different from the rest of the body?

Question

Somehow podiatry came up ( I have no background in medicine) and I was wondering why in the world are feet doctors a specialty compared to a general surgeon or someone that might fix a broken arm or hand issues?

In: 172

Answer 1

There are approximately 360 joints and 260 bones in the human body (I say approximately since there are lots of humans with a few more or a few less)

Of those there are 33 joints and 26 bones in each foot, for a total of 20% of the joints and bones in the human body.

Are you surprised that there is a specialist for a human structure that contains 20% of all bones and joints in the human body (along with the ligaments and muscles to support them)?

Note that there are also specialist hand-surgeons, as the hands are also extremely complex structures (where each hand contains 27 joints and 27 bones), although since the hand involves more fine motorics it has a lot more ligaments.