Stress Fracture Treatment Birmingham

Introduction

The five metatarsals are the bones in the ball of your foot. A metatarsal stress fracture occurs commonly in the 2nd or 3rd metatarsals and is usually due to a over use injury. Excessive bone loading which can be influenced by poor mechanics, reduced flexibility, surface, shoes and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors can lead to micro damage to the bone. Normally when micro damage occurs the bone remodels and adapts, however if for some reason the bone does not have enough time to adapt then this can lead to a bone strain. The bone strain then moves to bone damage followed by a stress reaction and then a stress fracture. Ultimately if the condition is not addressed this stress fracture can lead to a complete bone fracture.

Often these injuries occur as a result of poor biomechanics for example excessive moments of pronation in which the foot rolls inwards too much whilst walking or running, causing the lower leg to turn inwards. Also athletes who do not allow adequate rest periods between activity are also common sufferers of this injury. A sudden change in running mechanics, for example choosing to be a forefoot striker rather than a rear foot sticker or wearing certain running shoes can be a contributing factors.

Symptoms

The person who suffers a metatarsal stress fracture usually reports a gradual build up of pain due to the bone damage cycle above. There is usually pain and tenderness on palpation of the metatarsal head.

Treatment

Initial treatment should be rest and offload the foot with either strapping, insoles, stiffer shoes or a aircast boot. Once the initial bone injury has recovered it is important that our podiatrist indentifies factors including muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, motor control, biomechanics and proprioception. Once we have indentified the underlying cause we can provide a comprehensive rehabilitation program and orthotics.