Midtarsal Fault and Nerve Entrapment

October 17th, 2012 - Posted in Uncategorized

A midtarsal fault is a fairly common condition of the foot. It is basically an arthritic spurring on the top of the foot due to a foot that is flattening out too much. Much like tires on a car that will wear out sooner if they are not properly balanced, a foot that is not properly “balanced” will also begin to breakdown much sooner than other parts of the body.

This condition is generally but not always caused by excessive pronation or over-flattening of the foot. As the arch collapses it causes a jamming of the foot bones on the top of the foot and eventually the bones will begin to form bone spurring as a result of the constant pressure of the two bones against each other.

The best way to describe the condition is to look at the two x-rays below. These x-rays are not of the same person and the red arrows are “embellished” to prove a point. But lets make believe they are the same person with the top x-ray being a recent x-ray, while the bottom x-ray is from 25 years earlier.

Looking at the first x-ray notice where the yellow arrow is pointing. Even to the untrained eye you can see irregularity in thebones at the very top of the foot. Also, notice the angle formed by the two red arrows.

Compare those findings to the second x-ray. Looking at the top of the x-ray you can see how much smoother the bones appear compared to the first x-ray. More importantly, look at the angle formed by the tips of the red arrows. It is a much more acute angle than the first x-ray.

In both x-rays the point where the tips of the two red arrows come together represent the highest point of the arch. So, over the years as the arch continually collapses in every day walking there is continual jamming of thebones on top of the foot. Eventually, the daily jamming causes spur formation on the top of the foot (top x-ray).

A patient will usually come into the office complaining of pain on top of the foot, there is no history of trauma. Many times they will complain that the pain is worse when they are barefoot or in flimsy type shoes and thefoot will feel better when they are in sneakers. There are those that will state that in shoes they may also experience a tingling type pain in the area.

What is happening is two-fold. One, as the patient walks and the two bones keep jamming into each other, pain ensues. Since there is now spurring and bone growth irregularity, the pain becomes an ongoing saga.

Secondly, as luck would have it there is a cutaneous nerve (superficial nerve) that runs right over the bony prominence. Every time the patient wears a shoe,the top of the shoe presses the nerve into the irregular bony prominences and the tingling or irritation from the nerve begins.

Many patients will find that even if they are not walking, they can press on the area and it will hurt quite a bit.

As mentioned earlier, sometimes just eliminating the shoes that seem to aggravate the condition, avoid going barefoot too frequently, and taking some anti-inflammatory medication for a short duration will solve the problem, at least for the short term. Along with that you may also want to try an arch support to support the arch and keep if from flattening out and avoid the bone-to-bone pressure.

If that does not work it is time for medical attention. It is imperative to alleviate the underlying cause, which is the over-flattening of the foot. That part is usually addressed through the use of an orthotic which needs to be worn all the time.

Prescription anti-inflammatory medication may or may not work better than what you are presently taking. A cortisone injection can be very helpful particularly if the superficial nerve is entrapped in the area and is inflamed.

Looking for an effective, safe means to reduce or eliminate your foot pain, consider BLU-MJK. Use it in place of oral anti-inflammatory medication. Click the picture below

A little physical therapy may also help, but again, it is important to note that the underlying pronation has to be adequately addressed in order to have sustained relief.

When conservative measures fail, it is time to consider surgical intervention. There are a few different techniques available, but basically the goal of surgery is to remove the bone spurs and free the nerve from any fibrous tissue that may have surrounded it from all the inflammation. The surgery is a simple out-patient procedure.