ankle pain

4 Rehabilitation Techniques for Ankle and Foot Pain

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

Ankle and foot problems affect people in all walks of life (pun intended). In fact, over 30,000 people sprain their ankle on a daily basis. Because your feet and ankles shoulder your weight as you move about, it is extremely important to take proper steps to avoid injury. This includes proper stretching before and after exercise, wearing appropriate footwear, and using ankle supports.

Despite our best efforts, we all know the pain associated with missing a step and rolling our ankle. Sometimes you can walk off the pain, but other times you may find yourself on a doctor’s table. Whether your diagnosis calls for physical therapy or a surgical procedure, following through with your post-visit rehabilitation is vital to ensuring your foot returns to pre-injury form. To aid in your rehab, we put together a series of rehabilitation videos that can help get you back on your feet in no time. Take a look at the videos, and check out the descriptions to learn more about how each technique strengthens your foot.

Toe Fists

Toe fists are a great exercise because they really work the muscles in your feet. The exercise also helps increase mobility and range of motion in your arches. Hold your toes in a fist formation for three seconds, then release. Repeat this exercise for a couple of minutes each day.

Bridges

Bridges are a valuable exercise because they target another area of your body that may be indirectly affected by your foot injury – your hips. While lying on your back with your feet flat on the ground, thrust your hips into the air and make a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. This stretch will build pelvic support and stabilization, which is key if you are forced to forgo weight bearing for a period of time.

Toe Splay

Toe splaying is technique used to increase the lateral range of motion in your toes. Sometimes this stretch is tough to preform after surgery, but it’s important to remember that the benefit of the exercise is the challenge it presents, more so than the movement itself.

Toe Extensions

Toe extensions can be preformed either actively or passively. You can preform the passive exercise by slipping a towel or rag underneath your toes and gently pulling upwards. This will help maintain flexibility in your toes. The active exercise is done without the aid of a towel; patients simply try to raise their toes in the air as high as they can.

About the Author:

Lance SilvermanDr. Lance Silverman is an orthopedic specialist and founder of Silverman Ankle & Foot. Dr. Silverman is an accomplished orthopedic surgeon. He received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1996 and is a board-certified member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society. You can find him online his website.

Woman Struggles with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

CRPS ankle painAmanda Siebe is a young woman living with a rare disease known as complex regional pain syndrome (or CRPS for short).

It began when Amanda sprained her ankle during a shift at the restaurant at which she works. Initially she just dealt with the pain and continued to work on the injured ankle. But in a few days her ankle had grown inflamed and very painful.

After that she attempted to continue working with crutches to take the weight off of her ankle, but another fall forced her to take time off of work. The ankle still did not heal. After roughly a year of suffering, Amanda was finally diagnosed with CRPS.

CRPS is a condition where the body’s nerves record every type of stimulation as pain. For example, simply poking the impacted area with your finger may feel like a stabbing knife. CRPS can eventually move to other parts of the body as well over time.

Click here to read Amanda’s story.

Dr. Cohn Comments

Pain is a complex entity.  In medicine it is only considered a symptom.  However, pain is the major factor that leads people to visit their doctors.  Acute pain is most often related directly to some injury, trauma, or illness.  The diagnosis is often easy and the treatment is rapid and then the pain is gone forever.  When pain becomes chronic, the pain itself can become self-perpetuating despite the original source being healed.  In medicine today, pain has often developed into such a problem with complex roots that a new specialty exists – Pain Medicine.

CRPS is a very complex problem, whose exact cause and treatment is poorly understood.  Even among pain practitioners, many do not see the problem, and the challenges associated with it make these patients hard to treat.  However, there are a few excellent practitioners who actually understand the condition and have developed a good track record in treatment of this condition especially for ankle and foot disorders, such as Dr. Lance Silverman.

CRPS is from an over active sympathetic nervous system that is being constantly stimulated from an ongoing injury in the ankle or foot region.  In the case of multiple ankle sprains, or even a single untreated sprain, the ankle and foot region has damaged structures that have not healed and stimulate pain signals.  Two things are needed for successful treatment:

  1. Aggressive surgical repair of all damaged structures by a qualified foot and ankle orthopedic surgeon, and
  2. Pain management by a skilled pain management expert who can handle all aspects of medication, interventional care, and coordinate physical and if necessary psychological care.

Finding the team of the Orthopedic Specialist and Pain Medicine doctor who do this all the time is the trick.  I often partner with Dr. Lance Silverman (an ankle & foot orthopedic specialist) in such matters. Working together, we routinely help patients heal effectively and get back to a normal life.