Neuroma

I’m Dr. Leo Krawetz of Healthy Feet Podiatry.
One kind of problem that I see my office is the neuroma of the ball of the foot. A neuroma is a thickened and inflamed nerve usually located between the third and fourth toes. A neuroma is caused from repetitive trauma to the ball of the foot or from compression of the nerve and the nerve is usually compressed from side to side compression of the foot. This is usually caused from a shoe with a narrow toe box or if you have a bunion or some other type of deformity that causes the shoe to become tighter when worn. Treatment for a neuroma includes padding of the foot to take the pressure off the metatarsal arch. If this does not work, injection therapy is usually the next step. One of the injections that I use in my office is a combination of alcohol and a local anesthetic. This is also known as the sclerosing injection. A sclerosing injection is put into the ball of the foot and what the sclerosing injection does is to shrink the nerve or kills the nerve completely and this usually takes a series of injections sometimes up to 7 injections. Some people get lucky and they have 2 or 3 injections and the pain goes away completely. If you are suffering from symptoms of neuroma, you will usually feel pain or burning or numbness in between the toes or across the ball of the foot and usually as I said before it is between the third and fourth toes, but it is not uncommon to have neuroma in between the second and third toes as well. If you feel you are suffering from this condition, you can contact me by visiting my website at https://healthyfeetpodiatry.com.