Podiatry on YouTube

The American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS) now has its own account on the popular video sharing social networking site YouTube.com. Please check it out and watch some really interesting podiatry related interviews and short clips.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FootAndAnkleSurgeons

Heel Pain - Treatment

Conservative treatment is over 90% effective and consists of:

• Oral anti-inflammatory medicine or steroid injections.


• Physical therapy


• Functional orthotics (shoe inserts that maintain proper biomechanics)

Anti-inflammatory medication and orthotics are key to long-term successful treatment.

If conservative treatment does not provide relief from heel pain, surgery may be necessary.

• The most common procedure is an endoscopic plantar fascia release, which reduces the pulling tension of the structures around the heel.


• Unless very large and projecting downward, the spur usually does not need to be removed, since the tension on the plantar fascia, not the spur, causes the symptoms.

You can download our Podiatry-at-a-Glance newsletter that talks about heel pain from out website.

Ingrown Toenails - Treatment

Treatment with over the counter products and topical or oral antibiotics is usually ineffective
since they do not address the ingrown nail itself. In order to resolve the condition the
offending nail border must be removed (Fig. 2).

• If the nail is only minimally ingrown the offending border may be removed simply by
  trimming the nail margin. This does not usually require use of a local anesthetic.
  
• If the nail is significantly ingrown or an infection is present, removal of the offending
  nail border and drainage of the infection usually requires local anasthesia and a more
  aggressive nail border resection. Any hypertrophic granulation tissue is usually resected.
  Antibiotics should be used appropriately.


• In cases of reccurrent ingrown nails a matricectomy may be performed in which the
  offending portion of the nail is permanently removed.
  
• If an abnormality of the nail, soft tissue, or bone is present a more involved surgical
  procedure may be needed to correct the condition and relieve the patient’s symptoms.

You can download our Podiatry-at-a-Glance newsletter that talks about ingrown toenails from our website.