Are you a person who has pain in the foot or the heel when you’re walking barefoot? Do you get calluses on the front of your foot from pressure areas? Have you noticed that you don’t have any fat on the bottoms of your feet? The doctors at Hosey and Murphy Foot and Ankle Centers are happy to offer a brand new treatment for pain caused by atrophy or thinning of the fat pad on the bottom of your feet.
Normally this pain will manifest in the forefoot that we call metatarsalgia. Patients will usually describe pain under the ball of the foot when they are walking barefoot or even when wearing shoes that are not supportive, including high heels. The pain can then become worse, and can happen when wearing any type of shoe gear. This is caused by “atrophy” of the plantar fat pad. This is a natural process that usually happens as we age, but can also be sped up, or worsened, with certain medical conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, trauma, steroid use or other conditions. This atrophy can also occur in the fat pad in the heel that can cause similar pain or even ulcerations (breaks in the skin).
We now have a very new treatment that can help to address this metatarsalgia or heel pain that results from atrophy of the plantar fat pad. The procedure is a simple procedure that we perform in the office where we inject a fat graft into the areas of increased pressure. After the procedure patients wear a surgical shoe with an insert that they wear for about one week. Depending on the specific area of the fat graft, we may keep some padding in your regular shoe to allow the graft to “settle” into place. This unique procedure also induces your body to produce more adipose tissue, or fat cells, in this specific area of need.
Previously we did not have a good way to add protection to the bottom of the foot but now we can! Schedule and appointment to ask one of our great Board Certified physicians if this treatment could be right for you today!