Ever feel like you’re walking on a pebble? Any shooting pain in your foot when wearing tight shoes? A burning pain in the ball of your foot that may radiate into your toes? Tingling or numbness in your toes? You may be suffering from a foot neuroma (Morton’s Neuroma)
A neuroma is a small benign growth, which can develop over your nerves, causing pain and discomfort to your forefoot. This usually develops over a long period of time in response to irritation to the surrounding long bones in your foot. The constant rubbing causes inflammation and growth of the neuroma.
A Morton’s neuroma will typically present with tingling, burning or numbness, pain, a feeling that there is something inside the ball of your feet, or the feeling that there is bunching under your forefoot.
There will typically be a lot more pain when wearing tight or compressive footwear.
The biggest risk factors are those, which cause compression to the forefoot, such as tight footwear or prolonged use of high heels. Further risk factors include people with flattened arches, previous bunions, and those who are heavily into running or court sports where there is a lot of pressure to the forefoot.
On your consult, there will be testing to ensure that we are likely dealing with Morton’s neuroma with a referral for an ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis and to determine the size of the neuroma.
There will be an initial offloading treatment to reduce the amount of pressure applied to the neuroma and reduce the irritation, including padding, footwear modification, and potentially orthotic devices with the potential for injection therapy.