Acute Pain and Injuries Treatment

What You Need To Know

Understanding acute foot and ankle injuries and when to see a podiatrist.

Acute Foot and Ankle Injury Care

A foot injury can significantly impact your mobility and your regular level of healthy activity. An injury to the foot can impact any of its 26 bones, as well as its joints, ligaments, muscles, or tendons. Injuries are usually due to overuse or trauma and can include sprains, fractures, and other complications. Injuries to the intricate structures of the foot can cause inflammation, swelling, pain, inability to bear weight, nerve damage, and hindered mobility.

Common symptoms of foot trauma include piercing pain, throbbing continuous pain, pain that increases with activity and lessens with rest, inflammation, bruising, tenderness, walking difficulty, balance issues, and difficulty bearing weight. Some patients also notice a change in gait or an obvious foot deformity.

Foot and ankle trauma can happen to anybody, even someone who is fit. Common causes include impact injuries from accidents, falls, and high impact sports, medical conditions such as arthritis and low bone density, overtraining, age-related bone weakening, obesity, and improper footwear.

If left untreated, foot injuries can cause issues for the knees, legs, hips, and low back and may affect your long-term ability to walk, run, or engage in sports. If symptoms don’t improve in a day or worsen, our team will complete a thorough health history, physical exam, and diagnostic testing to build a treatment plan that fits your injury.

Common Injuries and Treatment Options

Five of the most common foot and ankle injuries we treat include Achilles tendonitis or tear, ankle sprains, stress fractures of the foot, fractures of the ankle, and plantar fasciitis. The Achilles tendon can suffer damage with overuse or rupture from sudden trauma during high impact sports. Ankle sprains occur when ligaments stretch beyond their limit, and repeated sprains can weaken the joint over time.

Sesamoid injuries are another category we see often. The sesamoids are two small bones in the ball of the foot that help the big toe move and absorb weight. Sesamoid injuries fall into three types: turf toe, fractures that can be acute or chronic stress fractures, and sesamoiditis, an overuse injury involving chronic inflammation.

Treatment depends on the cause and severity of the injury. Options may include immobilization with a cast or walking boot, orthotics, physical therapy, and pain medications. For sesamoid injuries, nonsurgical care may include padding, strapping or taping, NSAIDs, steroid injections, and custom orthotic devices. Surgery is often indicated for the repair of fractures or torn ligaments and tendons.

Acute injuries can also include burns and lacerations. Small burns can often be managed at home, but deep or large burns need emergency care and may require skin grafts. Lacerations that involve nerves or tendons may need surgical repair to restore function. With prompt evaluation and the right treatment plan, most patients return to their normal activities.