Tag Archives: heel pain

Health and Fitness

What is the treatment of Severs disease in the foot?

Severs disease is the common name for a disorder called calcaneal apophysitis. It truly should not be termed Severs “disease” since it is not a disease. This is a self limiting problem of the growth plate in the heel bone of children which always goes away on its own sooner or later with no long term problems. This is a extremely common condition in children close to ages 10 to 12 years and should you ask a number of kids of that age should they have it or have a friend that has had it, then a lot of them will probably say yes. There is a growth plate behind the heel bone in which growth of that heel bone takes place at. The achilles tendon connects to this growth area, and so its not hard to see that lots of force is placed on that growing area, particularly if the child is overweight or busy in sport. The condition is a strain of the growing region. The growing area combines with the remainder of the heel bone by the early teenage years, therefore it is just not feasible for it to become a issue after that.

Whilst the condition is self-limiting and they'll outgrow this, it is painful and can cause distress so does have to be treated. The ideal strategy is to commence with education about the Severs disease and the way to control sports loads to keep it manageable. It is common to use ice on the heel after activity to help relieve the pain. Cushioned gel heel pads are frequently good and can make it more bearable so they can continue with activity. If there are biomechanical problems, then appropriate foot supports may be required to take care of that. The most crucial part of the %Severs disease is the management is simply managing the loads. Children of that age need to be active and get involved in sports activity, which means this generally is a nightmare.

Health and Fitness

How to manage heel pad atrophy

Pain in the heel is common and there are many different causes of this. Plantar fasciitis is certainly the most frequent condition and is often simple to diagnose. However, there are many other reasons that are not as frequent and are harder to diagnose. Among the less common conditions is a condition known as heel fat pad atrophy. There is a layer of fat underneath the heel which provides a cushion and shock absorber while we are running or walking. Ordinarily there's sufficient fat there to provide that shock absorption, but in some people it atrophies or wastes away and it may no longer guard the heel with that shock reduction. Exactly why it happens isn't completely obvious, but there is some atrophy of that fat pad with getting older and some simply seem to atrophy greater than others at a faster rate. The key symptoms of this problem are usually increasing pain with weight bearing beneath the heel. Additionally it is essential to rule out other conditions as they might exist concurrently.

The primary strategy to deal with heel pad atrophy is to substitute the fat that has wasted away. The simplest way is to wear pads in the footwear beneath the heel, usually made of a silicone gel that has the same consistency as the natural fat, as they theoretically substitute the pad that is missing. This typically deals with almost all cases of this and that is all that has to be done. The only issue with this approach is you have to use the pads and you can’t do this when without shoes or in sandals without difficulty. The only other option is a surgical procedure called augmentation where some fat is surgically inserted under the heel. The injected fat can come from another area of the body or could be synthetically created in the laboratory. The longer term outcomes of this sort of approach are not yet known, however early results from the surgery appear good.