Morton’s neuroma or Morton’s metatarsalgia is a condition which affects the foot, more so, the ball of the foot. What is the ball of the foot? I’ll just show you on a small model here. If this is the foot, this s the heel part, and these are the toe part. So this is a part which is called ball of the foot. So this is where you put your weigh most of the time . This is the ball of the foot. So this affects some areas. So that is called as the Morton’s metatarsalgia.it happens in people who use very tight shoes, more so the ladies who want to keep their foot looking slimmer, they use a very tight shoe. So that can lead to crowding of bones. So this is what is crowding of the bones. When you press it, it gets crowded like that. This leads to that particular condition. That is the commonest cause for Morton’s neuralgia. The other things are ill fitting shoes, or a flat shoes. What is flat shoes? Shoes which has no contours inside is called flat shoe. So this also can lead to such pain and trauma to that area during sporting activities or during these trekking and rock climbing activities can lead to a little bit of injuries to that. What exactly happens in Morton’s neuralgia? Somewhere between the 3rd and 4th toe or the 2nd and 3rd toe the nerves, what are nerves? These are nerves which carry sensation of limbs. So these nerves cross between the two bones like this, it goes between the two bones here. So these nerves can get compressed there, when it is compressed like that will lead to swelling in the nerve or tissue which is around the nerve can get swollen.it leads to a small little lump like thing there and that continues to pain. Usually this can be treated by relaxing the foot by wearing better fitting shoes or a well molded shoes, this treatment is good enough for Morton’s neuralgia. But at times it so happens that people seek attention very late, that is after a long time they come for treatment. During such conditions it becomes very difficult because medication and relaxation of the foot may not help because the a swelling would have become almost a permanent one. So in such situations we may have to operate it or we may have to give injections o the local area. Injections come as steroid injections to reduce the swelling around the particular nerve, At times with single injection this condition may get completely cured, or it may need multiple injections, like 3 or 4 at a gap of say about 3 – 4 weeks, between each injection 3- 4 weeks of gap and it may help. Sometimes this injections will not help. That’s when we think of surgery. What we do in surgery? If at all there is a tissue around the nerve which is swollen we will have to excise, means remove it, physically competely. At times, when the nerve is too very swollen, if the nerve is swollen, we may have to excise the nerve and a s a complication of this, you may lose a little bit of sensation around that particular toe, that is the 2nd toe or the 3rd toe. But for your regular life, its not going to affect you or your regular activities like walking, running, jogging, it may not affect. Only the sensation may get affected. But very well fitting shoes is the way you can prevent all this problem.

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