Metatarsalgia
What is metatarsalgia?
Is one or more of your toe joints inflamed, painful, and stiff? You may also notice swelling and experience a burning sensation in the joint area. Then it's likely that you have metatarslagia.
The swelling and pain usually become progressively worse with continued activity, especially if your shoes are fairly old or you have relatively poor foot and ankle strength.
In full-blown metatarsalgia, the pain can be so intense that putting weight on your foot becomes nearly impossible.
Diagnosis
Because there are other conditions such as diabetes or gout that mimic metatarsalgia, we will start off by take a detailed personal and family medical history. Our diagnosis will be affected by factors such as recent weight-gain, or if closely related family members have had either diabetes or gout, then we will diagnose this.
An x-ray - and even an MRI - might show up a stress fracture in the joint. In some extremely difficult-to-diagnose cases, tests of nerve function in the foot may be necessary.
We will assess the activities that provoke discomfort, the exact location of your pain, and whether you have recently changed your workout schedule, your sports shoes, or the surface upon which you train.
Treatment
If it appears that footwear is related to your metatarsalgia, we will recommend suitable running shoes. Shoes with more squared off toes tend to work better for forefoot-pain patients, as they relieve the pressure on the forefoot and permit the toes to spread apart during walking, jogging, or running.
It may be necessary to limit your training until your symptoms go away. Workouts may be made less lengthy and intense (in severe cases of metatarsalgia, training will have to cease until symptoms subside), and ice and elevation should be used after training sessions are over. The best policy appears to be to rub the painful area with ice for about 12 minutes at a time (while the foot is elevated), taking 20-minute 'recoveries' between icings. Weight loss may be helpful to the overweight athlete suffering from forefoot pain, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications are often taken to provide pain control.
There are a variety of different orthotics which are used to treat metatarsalgia. Orthotics are usually custom-made using a plaster cast to fit the exact shape of your foot and are inserted into your shoes. The main feature of an orthotic made to relieve forefoot pain is a supportive pad that fits under the joints of the toes with the foot.
Don't train through it!
If a stress fracture is discovered, symptoms may hang around for four to eight weeks, and if obesity, diabetes, gout, or arthritis are present it is very difficult to predict how long the pain will last. Although you might be tempted to 'train through' metatarsalgia, activity will increase the stresses on the point of injury and slow down the recovery process. Return to normal training and competition should be delayed until underlying causes of forefoot pain have been resolved and until major symptoms have disappeared. We will monitor your recovery and advise you on when it's best to get back to your activity.
If weight gain is a reason for your problem, we will help you get back on track with our Lifestyle Management Programme.
Chiropody Treatment