Heel pain is a common foot problem caused by plantar fasciitis. It is a condition which is also referred as heel spur syndrome in which a spur is present. It is mentioned that the main cause of the heel pain may be due to tendonitis, nerve irritation, and a cyst in rare conditions or due to a stress fracture. As there are many potential causes, get the heel pain diagnoses properly and only a foot and ankle specialists or surgeon performs the diagnosis and determines the underlying source of the condition.
Signs and symptoms of heel pain
It is general to find pain in a heel without any injury and triggered when a flat shoe is worn like flip flop sandals, the reason is the flat footwear stretches the plantar fascia in such a way that the heel area gets inflamed and swollen. The pain is felt under the foot and towards the front of the heel.
Sometimes the pain gets worse when you get out of the bed in the morning or after a long rest on the bed during the day.
What causes this heel pain?
It is caused by a single injury like a fall or a twist and even due to repetitive stress and pounding of the heel. The most general causes of the condition are:
- Heel bursitis
- Tarsal tunnel syndrome
- Plantar fasciitis
- Heel bumps
- Chronic inflammation of the heel pad
- Severe disease
- Achilles tendonosis
- Stress fracture
- Bone cyst
- Gout and Neuroma
- Peripheral neuropathy and
- Rheumatoid arthritis
How to diagnose the condition?
It is diagnosed by the foot and ankle surgeon who, after going through your medical history will examine the condition. The test in the form of x-ray and other imaging modalities is considered to distinguish the type of pain in the heel as sometimes spurs are found in the heels with plantar fasciitis which are the main source of pain.
How is the problem treated?
There are non surgical and surgical treatments which are applied as per the condition. The surgeons advises for non surgical treatment to control the condition and when gets worse with more pain, surgical treatment is advised after discussion with other surgeons to cure the condition.
