Pinched nerve in foot

Foot Pain

A lot of people experience sudden pain in their foot due to the pinched nerve in the foot, but they shouldn`t worry too much since this condition is not the one that evokes serious concerns. The pain caused by a pinched nerve can be really annoying and unpleasant for some people as it tends to come and go from time to time.

If you experience pain in the foot, you should visit a doctor. This condition is also called Neuroma, which is a nerve pressed by some external muscle or tissue, and people who suffer from it could get really confused not knowing the real reason for the pain.

The compression of the nerves in the area of the foot will usually cause pain somewhere between the toes. One of the obvious signs of the pinched nerve in the foot is the sensation that one gets when their arm or leg ‘falls asleep’. Sometimes, a pinched nerve can be mistaken for a cramp and it can happen at any time of the day or night.

There are various causes of the pinched nerve and mostly all of them have something to do with some form of strenuous or physical activity. A pinched nerve can usually happen while wearing tight footwear when the shoe is pressing some of the nerves of the foot creating the pain.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and quickly spread across the world, with the World Health Organization officially declaring it as a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. Whereas the respiratory system is primarily affected in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections, neurologic complications affecting both the central and peripheral nervous systems have been reported. An observational investigation of 214 patients with COVID-19 reported peripheral nervous system involvement in up to 9% of people. As the number of survivors of COVID-19 surges, long-term sequela and rehabilitation concerns related to neuromuscular pathologic conditions are becoming more apparent.

Neuromuscular complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are increasingly being observed, particularly as survivors undergo rehabilitation care.
Imaging aids evaluation of peripheral nerve injury in patients with COVID-19 and may directly impact patient care.
Differential diagnosis of peripheral nerve injury in the setting of COVID-19 includes postinfectious inflammatory neuropathy, prone positioning–related stretch and/or compression injury, systemic neuropathy, and nerve entrapment secondary to hematoma.

✓ Fact confirmed: Imaging Review of Peripheral Nerve Injuries in Patients with COVID-19 Claire E. Fernandez, Colin K. Franz, Jason H. Ko, James M. Walter, Igor J. Koralnik, Shivani Ahlawat, Swati Deshmukh; Dec 1 2020

Symptoms

One of the most common symptoms of the pinched nerve is a sharp pain in the area of the foot. Having a certain weight upon the foot, a sudden turning of the foot, or wearing the shoes for a long time can cause the pinched nerve followed by pain. If you are suffering from Neuroma, you must have experienced some of these signs already.

Pinched nerve can also cause numbness in the foot and although many people believe that the numbness is created by the insufficient blood supply to the foot, it is actually caused by the pinched nerve. The sensation of tingling in the feet and hands is also something almost everyone experiences at one point in their life. You must know that there is a big difference between the pinched nerve in the foot and a nerve tumor that usually occurs between the third and fourth toe on one`s foot.

Treatment

If you have a problem with a pinched nerve, there are several helpful tips you can use. You can start by stopping the presence of any kind of compression to the foot and by rubbing the area of the foot in which you have pain. In case, you experience numbness without pain, then you should try shaking the foot for a while until the numbness disappears. You should definitely wear comfortable footwear and make sure that they don`t make any kind of pressure on your feet.

If you don`t find any of the above-mentioned tips helpful then you should visit a podiatrist, who will make the appropriate diagnosis and recommend the right treatment. There are several forms of treatment that a specialist can recommend and they include taping or padding to support the foot, some orthotic devices, exercises for the pinched nerve, medications, and even surgeries in some very serious cases.