Foot Pain

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Foot Pain

Foot pain: Foot pain is the sensation of discomfort in the foot arising from disorders or injury to any of the structures in the foot including bones, nerves, muscles, blood vessels, or connective tissue. There are numerous and varied causes for foot pain, since the foot is an extremely complex anatomic structure made up of 26 bones and 33 joints along with 19 muscles and 107 ligaments.

Causes of foot pain originating in the foot include broken bones or other injury to ligaments, tendons or soft tissue, calcaneal spurs, plantar fasciitis, arthritis, and infections. Systemic conditions and diseases, such as peripheral neuropathy resulting from diabetes and peripheral arterial disease (atherosclerosis) can sometimes result in foot pain.


. Restricted ability to bring the foot up (heel walk). This specific symptom is characterized by an inability to bring the foot upward and may be accompanied by numbness in the middle lower leg and foot. Heel walk may occur if one of the spinal nerve roots in the lower back that innervates the sciatic nerve is affected.

. See Sciatic Nerve and Sciatica
Foot heaviness or weakness (foot drop). Often originating from a spinal nerve root in the lower back, foot drop refers to a weak or heavy feeling that makes it difficult or impossible to flex the ankle and bring the front of the foot up. Foot drop due to a L5 nerve root problem will usually also produce pain that radiates down the outside of the calf and over the top of the foot to the big toe.

. See What Is Foot Drop?
Difficulty walking on tiptoes. Bottom of foot pain may occur if the sciatic nerve’s S1 spinal nerve root is affected. Typical symptoms of pain in the bottom of the foot may include weakness in the gastonemius muscle, making it hard to walk on the tiptoes, raise the heel off the ground, or even complete everyday activities like walking or driving.
. Herniated Lumbar Disc. A herniated disc occurs when a disc's inner core pushes or leaks out through its outer core. This process causes pressure on the nerve root, which may radiate pain down the sciatic nerve into the leg and foot, with symptoms varying and depending on the location of the herniated disc.

. Lumbar Spinal Stenosis. This lower back condition refers to the spinal nerve roots being compressed or choked, which may lead to referred foot pain symptoms including weakness, numbness and a tingling sensation in the foot. Related foot pain treatments include primarily nonsurgical measures to address the spinal stenosis in the lower back. Rarely, surgical decompression may be necessary.

. Spondylolisthesis. With this low back condition, a vertebra slips over the next vertebra, thus compromising the spine segment and potentially leading to a pinched nerve that can cause pain to travel down the leg and into the foot. Treatments for spondylolisthesis may include nonsurgical or surgical approaches.
When the pain begins to interfere with your activities of daily living or if you cannot perform your desired activities without pain, you should consider seeking medical attention. Indicators that you should seek medical care are if the area looks deformed, you have loss of function, change of sensation, a large amount of swelling with pain, prolonged change of skin or toenail color, the affected area becomes warmer than the surrounding areas, becomes exquisitely tender to the touch, or is causing you to move differently.

https://www.spine-health.com
https://www.spine-health.com
https://www.medicinenet.com

Foot Pain

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