Click here to view next page of this article Plantar FasciitisThe plantar fascia can be involved with plantar fasciitis as it inserts into the calcaneus and also the Achilles tendon as it inserts into the back of the calcaneus plantar fasciitis. These are very common problems. If there is any sense that it is chronic inflammatory in nature and there are other systems involved, really think of a spondyloarthropathy because these areas are very commonly involved with things like ankylosing spondylitis and the like. But I do see patients occasionally and that’s all they have plantar fasciitis. They just have Achilles tendonitis or plantar fasciitis. Sometimes you can even get bursal inflammation although it’s very difficult to differentiate from direct tendon involvement. They start out with a 50 pound bag of mail and it’s hard on their feet. They just walk around and deliver mail all day. But anybody who is on their feet a lot, walking, carrying extra weight, and the pain is usually in the sort of medial aspect of the bottom of the calcaneus. It’s not dead center, because that’s not where the plantar fascia inserts. When you examine you can put a stress on the plantar fascia either by pushing on the forefoot up, or just putting your thumb right into this area of the insertion. Treatment generally involves antiinflammatory drugs which often work quite well. Sometimes a podiatrist can design an orthotics - or an orthopedic surgeon can design orthotics - that would help to relieve the strain of this plantar fascia. Corticosteroid injections can be I don’t like to do them repeatedly, again because this structure has a tremendous amount of stress on it. So I’ll do it once, maybe twice. A lot of times that’s all you need. Sometimes patients do need ongoing antiinflammatory treatment. Achilles tendonitis is going to be on the back of the heel and when you see this, you really should think of another cause, particularly spondyloarthropathies, fluoroquinolones antibiotics which are commonly used for urinary tract infections - at our hospital now the fluoroquinolones are first line for community acquired pneumonia. I guess they are just less expensive and easier to give, but it’s not Cipro. I guess it’s Levaquin, seems to work pretty well for upper respiratory-type infections and it’s just easier than giving a combination of erythromycin and cephalosporin. But these antibiotics have been associated with Achilles tendonitis, among other tendonopathies, and it can occur very quickly and these patients can actually go on to rupture. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common thing that we see. The symptoms are pain and burning in the wrist and hands. Often it is not that well localized. Patients don’t read their neurology textbooks. They don’t know where the median nerve goes versus the ulnar nerve. Often they complain that the entire hand is numb. The pain may radiate up to the arm, even up into the neck if it is very severe and very acute. Paresthesia and numbness are classic. The hypothenar evidence marks the location of the carpal tunnel. If you tap there and the patient has pain, either radiating into their hands somewhere, their thenar evidence or their fingers, or up into their forearm, I consider that a positive sign. The Thalence is not quite as good. That’s where you bend the wrist, either flex it or extend it for the reverse Thalence and then let it sit there for awhile. I don’t find that is quite as useful. I don’t feel like wasting a minute, having them sit there if the Tinel’s sign is positive, that’s good enough for me. You may have abnormal sensory findings, occasionally weakness or even atrophy which is, in my experience, very unusual. Probably a hand surgeon or orthopedist see this a lot more. This just shows you the difference in nerve distribution, the median nerve is generally the first three-and-a-half fingers. Although it is very rare. |