Which department should I register for plantar fasciitis?

Written by Wang Cheng Lin
Orthopedics
Updated on September 10, 2024
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To register for plantar fasciitis at a hospital, you need to visit two departments. The first is the orthopedics department, where the primary goal is to determine the cause of your plantar fasciitis. Firstly, it is necessary to check for the presence of heel spurs by taking an X-ray of the foot. Secondly, an MRI of the foot may be required to ascertain whether there is significant congestion and edema in your plantar fascia. As for treatment, you can seek help from the pain management department. The pain management department can provide local physical therapy and local blockade treatment to alleviate your pain. If this pain does not improve or worsens after more than six months of conservative treatment, severely affecting your daily life, you might need to return to the orthopedics department for surgical treatment. The surgery involves loosening the plantar fascia to help relieve the pain.

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Written by Wang Cheng Lin
Orthopedics
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Can you run with plantar fasciitis?

Patients with plantar fasciitis should absolutely avoid running, as running can increase the pressure on the sole of the foot, leading to a worsening of the symptoms of plantar fasciitis. If you want to exercise while suffering from plantar fasciitis, it is recommended to go swimming, as swimming does not put pressure on the feet. Additionally, swimming can provide proper stretching of the plantar fascia, which can help alleviate pain symptoms and aid in the treatment of plantar fasciitis. Currently, there are two main clinical treatments: the first is conservative treatment, such as rest, massage, acupuncture, and injection therapy to alleviate local pain. If these treatments are ineffective or if the pain gradually worsens, surgical treatment may be necessary. The goals of surgery are to release the plantar fascia and to remove bone spurs to help relieve pain.

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Written by Wang Cheng Lin
Orthopedics
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How to completely cure plantar fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis clinically has no method that can achieve a radical cure. Only through surgical treatment can the recurrence rate be reduced, but it cannot be completely cured. Of course, the effects of surgical treatment are definitely more significant than conservative treatment. The first step in surgical treatment is to release the plantar fascia, and the second step is to remove bone spurs, as a significant portion of patients with plantar fasciitis have concurrent bone spurs. Of course, during the surgical process, it is necessary to remove bone spurs. The third step involves drilling into the heel bone to decompress it, as some patients also suffer from high pressure in the heel bone. Therefore, the surgery aims to decompress the heel bone by drilling, thus further alleviating pain in the heel and foot. However, if rest is maintained post-surgery, and strenuous activities are avoided, it can significantly reduce the chances of recurrence of fasciitis, but surgical treatment is not a cure-all method.

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Written by Wang Cheng Lin
Orthopedics
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Plantar fasciitis etiology

The most common cause of plantar fasciitis is excessive weight-bearing walking, which leads to a type of nonspecific chronic aseptic inflammation of the plantar fascia, resulting in pain on the medial side of the foot when weight-bearing. This is the most common reason. The second cause is degeneration, which is most commonly seen in middle-aged and elderly female patients. The degeneration of the fascia can cause pain and may also be accompanied by heel spurs. Currently, there are two main treatments for plantar fasciitis. The first is conservative treatment, which includes rest, acupuncture, and local injection therapy to relieve pain. If conservative treatment does not work after more than six months or the condition gradually worsens, then surgical treatment becomes necessary. Surgical treatment can remove local inflammatory tissue and release the plantar fascia to achieve the purpose of relieving pain.

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Written by Wang Cheng Lin
Orthopedics
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Do you need to take an X-ray for plantar fasciitis?

Patients with plantar fasciitis need to have imaging done, as many people with plantar fasciitis also develop heel spurs. Therefore, imaging can be used to check if the patient has heel spurs. In addition to imaging, it is also necessary to perform color ultrasound or MRI. These examinations can reveal local edema in the plantar fascia, indicating some damage to the plantar fascia, and even the presence of aseptic inflammation. It is also necessary to combine the patient's medical history, physical examination, and clinical signs to diagnose plantar fasciitis comprehensively. However, imaging is a very necessary part of the examination process.

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Written by Wang Cheng Lin
Orthopedics
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Plantar fasciitis symptoms

The main symptom of plantar fasciitis is pain on the inner side of the foot when bearing weight and walking, which severely affects weight-bearing walking. Over time, this pain during weight-bearing walking can turn into what is known as rest pain, which is pain in the foot even when it is not bearing weight. The treatment of plantar fasciitis is currently divided into two parts in clinical practice. The first part is conservative treatment, which mainly involves massage, acupuncture, electrotherapy, magnet therapy, and occlusive methods to relieve the symptoms of foot pain when bearing weight. If this conservative treatment is ineffective and the pain worsens, severely affecting weight-bearing walking, surgical treatment may be necessary. The goals of surgical treatment are, firstly, to release the plantar fascia, and secondly, to remove heel spurs, as a significant number of patients with plantar fasciitis also have heel spurs. Thus, the aim of surgery is to release the plantar fascia and remove the heel spur to alleviate the pain during weight-bearing walking.