Dr. Javier LaFontaine, D.P.M.

Personal and Professional Bio

Javier La Fontaine, D.P.M., M.S., is an expert at healing wounds of the lower extremities. His forte is limb salvage through innovative medical and surgical treatments. This includes providing groundbreaking options to patients with diabetes, who’ve been told an amputation is the only solution to resolve their lower extremity wounds.

“Withou... Read more

Javier La Fontaine, D.P.M., M.S., is an expert at healing wounds of the lower extremities. His forte is limb salvage through innovative medical and surgical treatments. This includes providing groundbreaking options to patients with diabetes, who’ve been told an amputation is the only solution to resolve their lower extremity wounds.

“Without exaggeration, that happens daily,” he says. “Whether because of diabetes, infections, or vascular disease and related conditions, they’ve been told, ‘You’re going to have to lose your leg’ or ‘Your foot needs to be amputated.’

“When people hear a statement like that, it’s traumatic. For many of these patients, we treat their wounds and within a few weeks, because of the treatments we’ve provided, we can get them back on their feet and back to work. It can’t get any more rewarding than that. And that’s my everyday satisfaction.”

In addition to treating patients at the UT Southwestern Wound Care Clinic, Dr. La Fontaine is a Professor in the Department of Plastic Surgery and very active in clinical research, particularly with studies involving diabetic foot pathology and wound healing.

Dr. La Fontaine became interested in his specialty at a young age. As a track and field athlete, he was treated for pes planus, or flexible flat foot by a podiatrist.

“I was about 10 years old the first time I went to see a podiatrist, so I was placed in arch supports at a relatively young age and found the treatment interesting,” he recalls. “First I was a patient, and then eventually my podiatrist became my mentor, and later he became a good friend.”

Away from work, he also stays physically active, still running the track as a jogger and shooting hoops as a member of an adult basketball league. Read less