Accessory Navicular Syndrome: When your teenage child complains of pain on the inside of the foot just above the arch, your child may have an extra bone or cartilage there. This additional bone is harmless, but if it irritates the bones around it, it requires treatment.
Achilles Tendinitis: The Achilles tendon connects the calf muscles to the heel bone. It can handle a great deal of stress and activity, but it can rupture or begin to break down if you do a lot of running and jumping, or if you are on your feet for long periods. You may develop pain and stiffness, especially in the morning.
Acquired Flatfoot: A number of different conditions can create a painful flatfoot, so the symptoms can vary from patient to patient. You may have pain along the inside of the foot that gets worse when you walk or exercise, or you may feel pressure on the outside ankle bone. If it's an old injury, painful bumps can form in the middle of the foot.
Anterior Impingement Syndrome of the Ankle: When bone spurs form on the front of the ankle joint. They can cause pinching of the nerves inside the ankle. Doctors see this in athletes who have many small injuries to the ankle—particularly in soccer players.
Arch Pain/Strain: Many factors can cause a painful arch: a direct injury to the foot, a sprained ligament or tendon, a strained muscle, overuse, arthritis, and a number of others. Our doctors can diagnose the cause of your pain, recommend the best course of treatment, and find the right way to lessen or end your pain.
Arthritis, Great Toe (Halix rigidus): Every time you take a step, you bend your big toe—so if arthritis causes the toe to lock in place, walking can be difficult or even impossible. Both non-surgical and surgical treatments can be effective in relieving pain and keeping you on your feet.
Arthritis, Midfoot: Midfoot arthritis often develops after an injury to the foot or ankle, but it's also common among athletes. In middle-aged people, the pain and stiffness in the middle of the foot can make it difficult to climb stairs or do similar activities.There are many non-surgical treatments for this condition.
Arthritis, Hindfoot: Pain, stiffness, and limited range of motion in the joint where the foot meets the ankle can signal arthritis. This often surfaces years after an injury to the ankle joint. Hindfoot arthritis may be corrected by arthroscopic surgery, or by a joint replacement in many cases.
Bunions: A sore, swollen bump where your big toe meets your foot is a bunion, a painful affliction of more than half the women in the United States. Bunions are most often caused by shoes that are too tight, or by pressure on the toes created by wearing high heels. A simple change to comfortable shoes can relieve many bunions, but surgical removal is also an option.
Cavus Foot (High-Arched Foot): An abnormally high arch is called a cavus, and it can cause discomfort when you wear shoes with little or no arch support. Custom-made orthotics, created for you using plaster casts of your feet, often can restore your comfort.
Charcot Arthropathy:If you have lost sensation in your foot or ankle because of diabetes or another disease that strikes the nerves, you may fracture or dislocate bones in your foot without even knowing it. When small injuries become larger, they can cause redness, swelling, and warmth in your foot joints—and you may not be able to walk.
Chronic Lateral Ankle Pain: After a sprained ankle, some people have chronic or recurring pain on the outer side of the ankle. Swelling, stiffness, and difficulty walking are all symptoms of this condition.
Crossover Toe: If your second toe drifts toward your big toe and eventually crosses it, you're sure to feel pain in the bottom of your foot—and it will be hard to find shoes that are comfortable.The pain will begin before the toe crosses over, however, and early diagnosis is an important part of treatment.
Diabetic Foot Ulcers: Foot sores are very common in people with diabetes, especially if you have lost some of the feeling in your foot. The Foot and Ankle Institute can debride and treat foot ulcers and provide the bracewear and special shoes to help distribute your weight evenly, so you don't develop any new ulcers by putting too much weight on one part of your foot.
Equinus: Tightness in the Achilles tendon can cause you to lose the ability to bend your foot upward toward the front of your leg. When this happens, many patients try to compensate by changing the way they walk—which causes additional injuries. In many cases, the tightness is present at birth, but it can also come from spending months in a cast or from high-heeled shoes.
Extra Bones (Accessory Ossicles): Some people are born with more than the usual 26 bones in their feet. These may be painless and require no treatment, or they may give you some discomfort. Your doctor at the Foot and Ankle Institute can help you decide what to do about these bones.
Flexible Flatfoot: When you have arches while you're sitting down but they disappear when you stand up, you have flexible flatfoot. You may have pain in your heel, arch, or ankle, pain in your shins, and overpronation—your foot may splay outward at an abnormal angle.
Forefoot Pain (Second MTP Synovitis, Metatarsalgia): A sharp pain in the ball of the foot can signal one of several conditions. It's caused by bones in the area starting to separate from the long bone of the foot (the metatarsal)—which can come from an abnormally high arch, a long second toe, some forms of arthritis, or wearing high heels.
Fractures: All broken bones are known as fractures. The Foot and Ankle Institute can diagnose and treat any kind of fracture in the foot or ankle, and is ready to work with you on recovery and rehabilitation.
Ganglion Cyst: These round or oval lumps may form on the tendons or joints of your ankles or feet. They are non-cancerous and filled with a jelly-like fluid, and they may be painful if they press on a nerve. These often go away on their own, but your doctor can treat your cyst as well.
Gangrene in Feet: When blood stops flowing to a part of your body, the tissue dies—and when this happens in a foot, it can mean a loss of function. People with diabetes, peripheral arterial disease, trauma to a foot or leg, or atherosclerosis may develop gangrene. If you suspect that you have gangrene in any part of your body, go to the nearest Emergency Department immediately.
Haglund's Deformity: If you notice a bony, inflamed bump on the back of your heel, you may have this condition—one that's also known as "pump bump." It can be caused by women's pumps, shoes that rub against the back of the heel—although men's dress shoes, ice skates, or other shoes with a rigid back can cause the same bump. The deformity can be treated non-surgically (but you'll have to switch to softer shoes).
Hammer Toes/Claw Toes/Mallet Toes: If your second, third or fourth toes are bent and held in a position for a long enough time—all day for months in the same ill-fitting shoes, for example—the muscles tighten, and the toes can no longer stretch out straight. The bent toes look like hammers or mallets, or they may bend under and look like claws. There are non-surgical treatments for this, but you can prevent hammertoes by wearing comfortable shoes with plenty of space for your toes to spread out.
Heel Spurs: When a calcium deposit forms on the underside of the heel bone, it can protrude from the heel by as much as half an inch. This is a heel spur, and it often rubs up against the plantar's fascia, a band of tissue that connects the heel bone to the ball of the foot. The result is a pain that feels like a nail in the bottom of the foot. Treatment can include orthotics, injections, or minimally invasive surgery.
Insensitive (Numb) Feet: Diabetes and some neurological disorders can cause you to lose sensation in your feet. This is a dangerous situation, because you can't tell if you have a sore that might develop into an ulcer. Your doctor may recommend special shoes to keep you from injuring your feet, as well as regular inspections of your feet to be sure there are no lesions.
Lisfranc Injuries: Usually the result of an impact accident, this injury involves the metatarsal bones, the ones that form the arches of the foot. When these are dislocated from their proper place, they leave a gap, usually between the joints in the first and second toes and the rest of the foot. Small dislocations can be managed without surgery.
Morton's Neuroma: A burning or sharp pain in the ball of your foot can be caused by this condition, in which a nerve thickens because it has been squeezed for prolonged periods. The neuroma is caused most commonly by tight, narrow, or high-heeled shoes.
Osteochondral Lesions of the Talus: The talus is the bottom bone of the ankle joint. After a traumatic injury to the ankle, a part of the talus surface may come loose and lodge somewhere in the ankle, causing the ankle to freeze in place. Surgery may be required to remove the fragment and reshape the talus to move smoothly again.
Peripheral Neuropathy and Nerve Compression Syndrome: Numbness, tingling, prickling sensations, and muscle weakness are all signs of damage to the part of the nervous system that transmits messages to your feet. This issue can be genetic, or it can show up later in life after a physical injury or a disease that affects the entire body (including diabetes).
Peroneal Tendinitis: On the outside of the ankle, the peroneal tendon connects the heel to the muscles that allow movement. Overuse can make the tendon thicken and enlarge, a painful situation that will heal with rest and a special boot to permit walking.
Plantar Fascitis (Heel pain): Possibly the most common cause of heel pain, this inflammation causes a stabbing pain that is at its worst first thing in the morning as you step out of bed. The more you sit during the day, the more this pain increases. It can continue indefinitely without treatment—and custom-made orthotics can eliminate the pain entirely. If these don't work, injection therapy and minimally invasive surgery may be indicated.
Posterior Tibial Tendonitis:This important leg tendon attaches the calf muscle to the bones on the inside of the foot. It provides support to the foot's arch, especially when you are walking. People who play high-impact sports often injure or tear this tendon. The result is pain and a loss of arch support, making it difficult to run.
Sports-related Sprains and Instability: Ankle sprains are the most common reason that people find themselves in the Emergency Department, and many of these are the result of instability—collapse of the ankle under stress. The Foot and Ankle Institute can treat any kind of sprain or instability, helping you maintain your mobility and avoid such accidents in the future.
Stress Fractures: Tiny fractures may not seem like major injuries, but they can be a sign of osteoporosis or other more serious conditions. If you have pain and swelling on the top of your foot or in your ankle, call the Foot and Ankle Institute for an appointment in our Urgent Care department—even if the injury hasn't slowed you down.
Tarsal Coalition: This abnormal connection in the back of the foot forms between cartilage, tissue and the tarsal bones. In most cases it forms before birth and presents itself later when the child has a limited range of motion in one or both feet.Many non-surgical methods help to reduce pain and increase motion, and surgery is a distant option.
Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome: On the inside of the ankle next to the ankle bone, there's a tunnel that contains—among other things—the posterior tibial nerve (see above). When the tunnel contracts because of an injury or abnormality, it compresses this nerve. You may feel something like an electric shock, a burning sensation, numbness, or shooting pain. Your doctors can recommend many non-surgical methods for reducing pain and relieving the symptoms.
