Dr Gentile has been successfully treating bunions with a surgery that is still not commonly used. Normally there is no cutting of bones if there is no arthritis. In the english literature the closest description of the surgery is the Lelievre-Keller surgery. The devil is in the details both in what the name means and how the surgery is performed.

Dr. Gentile presented this procedure in a 1959 paper, read it on this link in pdf format.



Avialable Backgroundi information on the Internet:

The procedure does not seem to be well described in English language publications. Dr Gentile first read of the operation in a paper by Lelievre that was contained in the Elviser's ENCYCLOPÉDIE MÉDICO CHIRURGICALE. A copy of the original paper has not been located. The present publisher contact is: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/600411/description#description


The available online texts on Hallux surgery which which for comparison are:

This comprehensive text shows a bone cutting "Lapidus" procedure in chapter

http://www.ocpm.edu/hallux/HV%20chapter%2017-Proximal%20Osteotomy.pdf

In another chaper is a comprehensive review that includes the "Lapidus-Keller" procedure

http://www.ocpm.edu/hallux/HV%20chapter%2021-Joint%20Destructive%20Procedures.pdf

the title page of the text is

http://www.ocpm.edu/hallux/


This summary describes overcorrection by surgery and describes a "Lapidus procedure" that has a 15% failure rate:

"The incidence of iatrogenic postoperative hallux varus ranges from 0% for distal osteotomies without a lateral release to 15% for proximal osteotomies (specifically, the Lapidus procedure) with distal soft tissue release. Most reports are of crescentic osteotomies, which have an overall varus rate of 10%.
http://www.emedicine.com/orthoped/topic127.htm