OverviewBabies are often born with flat feet, which may persist well into their childhood. This occurs because children?s bones and joints are flexible, causing their feet to flatten when they stand. Young babies also have a fat pad on the…

OverviewSome people have an ?apparent? LLD which may make the affected leg seem longer than the other leg. There are several factors that can contribute to this feeling. Most commonly, contractures or shortening of the muscles surrounding …

OverviewEvery time you take a step, one of your heels has to support the whole weight of your body. As you move, the load is equal to 20 times your own body weight. The load is softened by a pillow of fat under the heel and a large sinew o…

OverviewMorton's metatarsalgia is a condition associated with a painful neuroma* on the digital nerve causing pain in the foot. Charcterised by perineural fibrosis and nerve degeneration due to repetitive irritation, is thought to be due t…

There are actually two different kinds of leg length discrepancies, congenital and acquired. Congenital indicates that you are born with it. One leg is anatomically shorter than the other. Through developmental phases of aging, the human b…

Overview A heel spur is a calcium deposit on the underside of the heel bone. Heel spurs are related to plantar fasciitis in that both are caused by irritation and lack of support of the plantar ligaments. Your plantar ligaments are a band …

Overview Patients and doctors often confuse the terms heel spur and plantar fasciitis. While these two diagnoses are related, they are not the same. Plantar fasciitis refers to the inflammation of the plantar fascia--the tissue that forms …

Overview A bursa is a fluid-filled sac. There are hundreds of deep and superficial bursae throughout the human body. They are typically located near major joints. Bursae are situated between bone and soft tissues like tendons, ligaments, m…

Overview When there?s an imbalance in the muscle and ligament surrounding a toe joint, the effect is a bend in the middle joint of the toe, which causes the whole toe to bend upward. Because the toe is bent in an unnatural way, it?s common…

Overview There are two types of Hammer toe. Flexible hammer toes. If the toe can still be moved at the joint, it's a flexible hammer toe. That's good, because this is an earlier, less-severe form of the problem. There may be several treatm…

Overview Overpronation is when there is excessive rotation beyond the optimum level, more specifically involving more than 15 degrees of difference in angle between the plane of the foot and the plane of the leg. It is often linked with fl…

Overview This is a condition that is quite often misdiagnosed as growing pains this generally affects boys more than it may affects girls, especially between the ages of 9 and 15. This is a common disease in children that play the followin…

Overview Posterior tibial tendon insufficiency (also called posterior tibial tendon dysfunction or adult acquired flatfoot) has been named literally after failure of the posterior tibial tendon. However, the condition is caused not only by…

Overview The elastic covering on the sole of the foot--the plantar fascia--runs the length of the foot and holds up the arch. When this shock-absorbing pad becomes inflamed, this is called plantar fasciitis, causing a dull ache along the l…