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The response to the question below was authored by Marc Mitnick DPM
Inner ankle pain
by Al
(London)
Hi
I get a lot of pain on my foot (usually right one) that feels like I sprained my ankle althoughI did not. I was told that a bone on the inner side of my feet are a little to big and thus rubs on shoes causing an inflamation which results in pain. At times, its very difficult to walk due to the inflamation. The pain is usually aggravated whenever I wearshoes particulalry dress shows that area bit firmer than causal walkig shoes. Lately, it seem that any type of shoes aggravates my pain. Things clearly get better over a period of time when I do not wear shoes and put my feet up. A doctor suggested that the only solution would be to shave a part of eachof the innr bone that are a bit too large on a foot by foot basis. I am reluctant to do this in the event that this will not solve the problem.
I am 39 and in good shape. I do not overdo any sport functions. I weigh about 85 kilos with some signifiant muscle mass. I am about 5'8" tall.
What do you think?
Hi Al,
It sounds as if your pain refers to an enlarged navicular bone or even an accessory navicular (extra bone).
There is a possibility that if you stop wearing shoes that aggravate the bone and wear a more conservative shoe, that over a period of weeks to a few months the pain may subside or even disappear. When there is a bony abnormality on a foot I often tell the patient that trying to wear a dressy shoe on that type of foot is the equivalent of trying to put a square peg into a round hole. It just will not fit.
Now if you try that and it does not alleviate your problem your next option would be to consider surgical intervention. Two points. One, there is never any guarantees with surgery but this type of surgery is not an overly complicated procedure and can have very satisfying results and two, how much pain do you have? See my page on
surgical consideration to see my philosophy on when to consent to surgical intervention. If the pain you are experiencing is affecting your ability to do the things you want to do then I think you have to give some thought to surgical intervention.
Marc Mitnick DPM
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
Mayo Clinic
Johns Hopkins Medicine
MedlinePlus
Arthritis Foundation
University of Rochester Medical Center
Harvard Health
Drugs.com
American Academy of Pediatrics
Penn State Medical Center
National Institutes of Health
Columbia University Department of Rehabilitation
ScienceDirect
Stanford Health Care
Illinois Bone and Joint Institute
Mount Sinai Hospital
Institute for Chronic Pain
University of Florida Health
American Family Physician
Cedars-Sinai
University of Maryland Medical Center