Health, Diseases and Conditions
The pain in the foot under the fingers when walking: what to treat, what kind of doctor should I contact?
Often people turn to doctors because they feel pain in the foot under their fingers when walking. Visually, in most such patients, the skin of the sole is not damaged and there are no visible causes of what can cause discomfort. To establish the diagnosis it is possible only after complex inspection.
Causes of pain
- flat feet;
- erythromelalgia;
- rheumatoid arthritis;
- Morton's neuroma;
- age changes;
- osteomyelitis;
- traumatic lesions;
- ingrown toenails;
- funicular myelosis;
- Painful neuropathy;
- lack of calcium.
All these factors can lead to the pain in the foot under the fingers when walking. Treatment should be prescribed by a doctor only after a complete examination of the patient and determining what exactly caused unbearable discomfort.
Flat-footedness
Incorrect setting of the foot leads to the fact that its depreciation properties are lost. Pain occurs when it is necessary to stand for a long time on foot, walk or run. Flattening can be congenital or acquired. It arises because of the influence of prolonged loads on the ligamentous and muscular apparatus of the foot.
Flattening can develop:
- after injuries and fractures of legs;
- with increased load on the feet: during work, associated with the need to constantly stand or walk;
- because of excess weight;
- with a sedentary lifestyle, which causes muscle atrophy;
- because of wearing a narrow, uncomfortable shoes;
- on the background of development of rickets, diabetes, poliomyelitis.
If a person has already been diagnosed flat feet, then soon he can feel the pain in the foot under the fingers when walking. To which doctor to treat this disease, you can check with the district therapist. It is best if the diagnosis is performed by an orthopedic surgeon.
Other orthopedic problems
Not only flat feet can cause pain. Often the cause of discomfort is a lack of calcium and developing osteoporosis. This disease can cause severe pain in the foot under the fingers when walking. To what doctor to address in this case, to find out more difficultly. After all, for a complete examination it will be necessary to consult with an endocrinologist, rheumatologist, orthopedist and traumatologist. Often this disease occurs due to hormonal disorders. Therefore, consultation of the endocrinologist is so important.
People of age also often experience pain in the area of the soles of the feet. The cause may be the development of bursitis or gout. In the first case, the problem develops because the fat layer located in the region of the heads of metatarsal bones loses its damping properties. This causes the development of inflammation.
With gout, which is characterized by a metabolic disorder, the concentration of salts in the blood increases, and they begin to be deposited in the joints on the legs. But with this disease of pain, the patient is worried mostly at night.
Choice of treatment tactics
To alleviate the condition will help and reduce the burden on the legs. After all, pain occurs in most cases just after a long walk, standing on your feet for a long time or running. After any load they need rest: it is advisable to raise the legs above the head level for at least 15 minutes.
It will be useful to make warm foot baths and foot massage. You can just walk around a special massage mat or uneven surface (for example, scattered small stones).
With calcium deficiency and the threat of osteoporosis, it is necessary to drink special preparations containing this microelement. Useful and will be the usual vitamins, and funds designed to strengthen blood vessels.
Arthritis and arthrosis
About its beginning will testify not only to pain, but also redness, and strong swelling in the area of the joints. With running forms, people can not even stand upright. An exacerbation of the disease can occur after acute respiratory disease or ordinary overcooling.
Arthroses often cause pain in the foot under the fingers when walking. What kind of doctor should you go if you notice a "bone" on your thumb? Any arthritis and arthrosis should be handled by a special doctor - an arthrologist. But such a narrowly specialized specialist is difficult to find in ordinary polyclinics. Therefore, with problems with joints, you can contact surgeons, orthopedists and rheumatologists.
With arthrosis cartilage is destroyed in the joints. This causes a sudden short-term pain. Arthritis develops in the elderly, but with excess weight, excessive strain or genetic predisposition, the disease can manifest earlier.
Leg injuries
Even a minor blow can cause serious problems. Therefore, with pain in the feet, many are advised to do x-rays and consult a traumatologist.
The tactics of treatment are chosen depending on the condition. In some cases, the doctor may advise you to immobilize your leg. This option is preferable for fractures.
Neuroma Mortana
With a pathological thickening of the nerve of the foot, located between the fingers, the doctors diagnose the intercostal neurin. It is also known as Mortman's neuroma. With this disease, painful sensations are concentrated between the 3 and 4 toes of the foot.
To the development of interplus neurinoma leads to compression of the nerve with the heads of bones. Because of this, it thickens, and the patient begins to feel pain. Suffer from this disease mainly women who prefer close shoes with high heels.
The treatment of this disease is performed by surgeons or orthopedists. But first you need to establish a diagnosis. For this it is necessary to know the symptoms of the neuroma. They include:
- lumbago in the region of 3 and 4 toes;
- sensation of a foreign object in shoes;
- burning and tingling in front of the foot;
- pain that occurs after a load on the legs.
Tactics of treatment of neurinoma
It is quite difficult to get rid of Morton's neuroma. It is not enough to understand why there is pain in the foot under the fingers when walking. Than to treat, it is necessary to select individually. Some people are helped by changing shoes and using orthopedic insoles.
If the symptoms do not go away, then physiotherapy procedures are prescribed. It can be acupuncture, magnetotherapy, electrophoresis, shock wave therapy. If there is no result, blockade is made with the help of corticosteroids. This allows to remove inflammation, reduce edema and causes recurrence of the neuroma.
But in neglected cases, surgery is necessary. The surgeon can:
- Remove Morton's neuroma: it is immobilized and excised through a 2 cm incision; For the healing period, an active load on the legs is excluded, but after the operation the patient can go home on his own;
- dissect transverse metatarsal ligament: this helps to clean nerve compression;
- to break the head 4 metatarsal bone to reduce pressure on the nerve - this method is used extremely rarely.
Pain related to neurological problems
In some cases, the pain in the foot under the fingers during walking is caused by diseases such as pain polyneuropathy or funicular myelosis. In the first case there is a pronounced discomfort in the area of the feet. This disease often develops against the background of diabetes in those cases when the concentration of glucose in the blood is not too high.
Funicular myelosis develops against a background of vitamin B12 deficiency. This condition can arise because of its insufficient intake into the body or because of a violation of the mechanism of its assimilation. Discomfort arises from the fact that the nerve conduction in the spinal cord is disturbed. This leads to the fact that there may be enough severe pain in the foot under the fingers when walking. Treatment with folk remedies in this case will not help. It is necessary to quickly fill the vitamin B12 deficiency. This is done with the help of intramuscular injections of 4000 micrograms every 2-3 days. After 2 weeks, the dosage is gradually reduced to 100 μg. Such therapy can last several months.
Vascular diseases
When there is pain in the legs, one should consult a phlebologist, a cardiologist, a neurologist, an angiologist. After all, one of the reasons that there is pain in the foot under the fingers when walking, are problems with the vessels.
Men often face such a disease as endarteritis. This is called inflammation of the arteries, which develops mainly in the legs. At the first steps the patient does not feel discomfort, but over time the pain begins to increase, a feeling of heaviness and numbness appears. The condition improves after a short rest, but at the slightest load it deteriorates again.
Phlebitis and varicose veins also cause pain in the legs. But with these diseases they do not always concentrate in front of the foot, but can also grab other leg sections.
Alternative Therapy Methods
Any methods of alternative medicine can be used after agreement with the attending physician. After all, in the beginning it is necessary to understand what exactly led to the appearance of pain.
With arthritis, you can use a mustard compress. For its preparation, take 1 spoonful of dry mustard, olive oil and honey. All these components are mixed and boiled. After that, the compress is superimposed on the problem area.
Practically for all diseases, you can do foot massage and relaxing baths. These are safe methods of people's treatment, which will help temporarily to ease the pain and relax the problem feet. It is important to pay attention to resting legs and doing special gymnastics for the feet.
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