Uncurable pain in the forefoot may be caused by "big toe bone"

Some middle-aged and elderly people, especially elderly women, often experience pain in the forefoot area, which recurs repeatedly. After local blockade treatment or acupuncture treatment, the symptoms can be temporarily relieved. However, the symptoms keep recurring between attacks and treatment, and the symptoms often get worse. Eventually, the toes become arched, and calluses and corns appear under the second and third toes; or the skin on the outside of the little toe joint thickens and wears, causing unbearable pain in the feet, difficulty walking, difficulty finding suitable shoes, and difficulty in healing.

When encountering similar symptoms, it is necessary not only to treat the local lesions and pain of the foot, but also to pay attention to the problem of the big toe. For example, the big toe grows towards the little toe, and becomes more and more biased with age. Due to the limited space in the shoe, the biased big toe will squeeze the four adjacent toes, causing them to deform, develop arthritis, or even dislocate; or symptoms such as calluses and corns will repeatedly appear on the sole of the foot and the outside of the little toe and metatarsophalangeal joints.

The most common symptom of hallux valgus is inflammation of the joint capsule on the inside of the first metatarsophalangeal joint of the big toe, which sometimes also presents with redness and heat. Unlike gouty arthritis, which develops acutely at night, the pain caused by hallux valgus is often chronic and accompanied by deformation of the toes, commonly known as the big toe. In addition, patients with hallux valgus will experience tenderness in the toes after getting out of bed and moving around.

If it is determined that the pain in the forefoot is caused by hallux valgus, orthopedic braces can be used to correct it in the early stage. Severe cases require surgery to achieve the purpose of cure. Today's hallux valgus correction surgeries are minimally invasive, do not require hospitalization, do not affect self-care, and the key is that the effect is very good. When hallux valgus is cured, the root cause of the pain in the forefoot is removed.

Hallux valgus is usually familial and is generally inherited from the mother to the daughter. Wearing high heels for a long time is also one of the main causes of hallux valgus. Therefore, if your family elders, especially your mother or aunt, have hallux valgus, you should avoid wearing high-heeled and pointed shoes for a long time to avoid continuous squeezing of the feet and inducing hallux valgus. If you already have signs of hallux valgus, you should insist on wearing flat-heeled and loose shoes.

(Li Wuqiang, Director and Chief Chinese Medicine Practitioner of Sanmenxia Wuqiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital)