Welcome to the personal website of

Dr. Michael A. Zapf, DPM, MPH, FACFAS, FACFAOM

Thank you for visiting the web site of Dr. Michael Zapf. He is a member of the Agoura-Los Robles Podiatry Centers

The "real" practice web site, the one that contains registration forms, doctor information for all the office and directions to the office is located at:

www.conejofeet.com   ç Click here

I am Dr. Michael Zapf. I have been offering a full range of podiatric medical services, from ingrown nails to heel pain and foot surgery, to my friends and neighbors in the Las Virgenes, Conejo and Simi Valleys since 1985. This is my personal web site. It has been up since 1990 and has received more than 2 million visits. The entire site is my responsibility only and nearly everything on the site was written by me. You are welcome to peruse this site and learn what you can about me, your feet and the problems your feet can develop. Things happen fast in medicine so whatever you read could well be outdated, especially if it was written many years ago. On this site you will read historic articles that I wrote for a lay audience as long as 25 years ago, so please do not take anything on this site as definitive or as applying directly to your condition. You may wonder why I have my own site even though there is also an official practice site. Well, my partners are of a younger generation raised on tweets, e-mails and iPhones. They want a professional site that they believe better represents the professional nature of our practice. They also believe that people no longer take the time to read anything of length. I, on the other foot, think there is still a world out there full of people who still read lengthy descriptions of problems and solutions. if you are one of those old fashioned readers, then this site if for you. Let me know what you think. Let me know you are out there.

Please note that all information and photographs on this site are copyrighted by me, Michael Zapf, DPM, and cannot be used for any private or commercial purposes. I work with two other podiatrists in my practice who may or may not share any of my ideas and philosophy. Do not expect them to practice the way I do or even believe in any of the speculation I present here. If you appreciate what I have written and want me to be your treating doctor, you will have to ask for me specifically. Even if my office says at first, " He is booked until next month",  I still want to see you as long as you are a little flexible with your schedule. If your visit is an emergency, I know that  you will be happy with either of my associates, Dr. Darren Payne or Dr. Steve Benson. They are exceedingly well trained and capable in any foot emergency.

 

Michael Zapf, DPM, MPH, FACFAS, FACFAOM     (If you want to know what all those initials mean, click here   è  

Our office phone number is (818) 707-3668 and my e-mail address is zfootdoc [at] doctor [dot] com

Agoura Hills Office: 28240 Agoura Road, Suite 101, Agoura Hills, CA 91301

Thousand Oaks Office: 555 Marin Street, Suite 290, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

For the address, hours and registration forms please see the practice web site: www.conejofeet.com


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ACORN October 1994

Bordeaux by Foot

By: Michael Zapf, D.P.M., M.P.H., F.A.C.F.O.

Last month I had the opportunity to attend a foot surgery seminar in Bordeaux, France. I know you are probably thinking this involved sampling great food, tasting famous wines and visiting all the sights. Of course, you are right. But I also attended a first rate seminar as well.

I do not speak French and I had some trepidation before I left about how I would be received. I am delighted to say that everyone I met on this trip was kind, wonderful and generous. I can only fault them for their inability to say "I don’t know" when confronted with an unfamiliar address. Almost every person of whom I asked directions pointed me the wrong way. Nevertheless I still admired them for doing it with the assurance and elegance only the French have mastered. It also gave me the opportunity for a little extra sightseeing.

The seminar was jointly sponsored by the American College of Foot Surgeons, of which I am a member, and the French Orthopedic Society. There were foot surgeons from the United States and a dozen countries of Europe. The lectures were in either English or French. When a talk was in French, the English speakers would hear a simultaneous translation on headphones. The translators were very good at getting across most of the ideas as fast as a native born speaker can talk. Language problems still arose. In our headphones we would hear a translator with a heavy British accent apologize that they were having trouble understanding French spoken with a heavy Spanish accent.

Among my impressions about my European colleagues, besides their hospitality, is the diversity of their surgical techniques, the length of hospitalizations for foot surgery and how much they smoked. European physicians almost all smoke. We spent Friday afternoon at the Bordeaux medical school anatomy laboratory practicing new surgical techniques. The Americans could be found at the tables working with saws and drills. The Europeans were at the periphery of the room, cigarette in hand, talking about the procedures. The mixture of formaldehyde and tobacco smoke inside a room with poor ventilation on a rainy humid day was dreadful. You have to be tough to be a European doctor.

Every European country represented at this conference had a national health insurance plan. Despite this centralized control it is not unusual for patients having bunion, heel or toe surgery to stay in the hospital for three, five or even seven days. They were surprised to learn that these procedures are routinely done as an out-patient surgery in the States. One Portuguese surgeon was not even familiar with the concept of same day surgery.

I was well-acquainted with most of the techniques presented by the Americans. In the States foot surgery is performed quite similarly across the country. European surgical technique is more diverse. Some surgeons lectured on techniques that we discarded years ago because of high complication rates. Others discussed techniques that are so radical in approach that American doctors would be hesitant to even try them. It was refreshing to see how the problems American foot surgeons see on a daily basis are approached by surgeons from other countries.

This seminar was a great educational experience. I learned a lot about foot surgery, not to trust French directions and the relative merits of Medoc versus St. Emilion wines (its the amount of Merlot). What more could you want from a seminar?

Dr. Michael Zapf is a board certified podiatrist with offices in Agoura and Thousand Oaks. For more information you can call his office at (818) 707-3668. Oui!

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

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Copyright © 2000 Michael A. Zapf, D.P.M., F.A.C.F.A.S., F.A.C.F.AOA.M.
Last modified: July 24, 2010