Morton’s Neuroma Treatment
There are many ways to treat this painful foot problem. In the initial stages, Morton’s Neuroma is treated mildly by simply padding and taping the foot to disperse weight away from the neuroma. In cases where the patient is seen to have a ‘flat feet’, an arch support is added on. This form of treatment is known as the conservative treatment. The doctor may further advise the patient to rest the foot or change the type of shoes that are being worn. Any shoe with a raised heel should be avoided as it puts additional pressure on the front toes. A regular ice massage may also be prescribed to help reduce the pain. Some doctors even prescribe calf-stretching exercises to help patients to recover faster.
Under the conservative treatment, if the patient is in extreme pain, they are administered a dose of local anesthesia to help relieve the pain. Then if there is some amount of inflammation as well, the patient can be given corticosteroid to reduce it. The other option of treatment is using alcohol sclerosing injections. This will help to harden the nerve and relieves pain instantly the majority of the time. The treatment is continued by giving injections every 7-10 days. In most cases, 4-7 injections may be needed at the maximum. Some doctors use a combination therapy combining the alcohol with corticosteroid to treat the nerves in two different ways.
In extreme cases where the above treatments show no results, the patient may be advised to undergo surgery. Here again there are two options. There is the dorsal approach, where they enter trough the top of the foot. There is also the plantar approach, where the incision is made at the bottom of the foot. It is better to consult your doctor about the pros and cons of each one of these treatments and then select the one that suits you best.
Could you please tell what would be the side effect of the surgery removing morton’s neuroma? would the surgery end the pain in the foot?
Thank you
There is generally a good prognosis for the removal of the foot neuroma but it is wise to seek the opinion of a medical professional and exhaust all conservative treatment options before considering surgery on the morton’s neuroma. Some side effects could be injuring other parts of the foot as or even numbness because the doctors are removing nerves.
I have Neuroma (neuroma’s)in my right foot, Dr. seems to think I have more than one neuroma in my foot, the largest being in between my big foot and 2nd toe and smaller ones in all others. I have taken a cortisone injection in the larger one and also took a methylprednisolone dose pack which helped more than the injection. I am now on the drug Gabapentin which is for nerve pain. My foot still hurts very much and I don’t think the medicine I am on now is really helping me..maybe helps me sleep a little better. In your opinion do you thin my next step would be surgery?
Thanks in advance!
It is very possibly that you may have several neuromas in the foot. make sure that you find someone who is tracking the progress of the injections with a MRI .. the Alcohol injections into the nerve are meant to harden it completly to the point there is induces sclerosis on the nerve. Cortisone alone will only mask the pain ideally you want to kill the nerve. My advise is make them do a MRI to see just how many nerve bunches you are dealing with and then to ask about Alcohol treatments. Surgery should only be considered as a LAST resort
could you please tell me how quick would anesthesia or corticosteroid take effect,as Iam a marathon runner and I have been diagnosed with mortons neuroma,but unfortunatly due to NHS waiting lists I am looking at a 6 months wait,and in 3 weeks time Iam running the London marathon and need a temporarily solution until I can have surgery,I would be very grateful of some advice.MANY THANKS
You will really need to consult your doctor about this. Just numbing the pain of the neurmoma and running on it in a marathon could aggravate your condition to the point where you might not be able to walk at all. I would in your case also look into acupuncture on the foot to see if that might dull the pain some if you must run on it. But do so with extreme caution.
I have RA, my right foot has this problem. Ive had many injections and they don’t last anymore. I take lots of meds for my joints. I would take the surgery in a minute, I cant walk anymore without extreme pain. Im 46. Please advise me.
What I would like to see is The **successful** treatment of M’s Neuromas.
This condition didn’t just occur in me from wearing bad shoes,
A podiatrist removed my Sesamoid bone in my right foot to correct a minor foot pain issue, and left me after 3) subsequent surgeries as a permanently disabled cripple that experiences 7) of 7) days a week with levels 7-9 chronic pain………..and that was 5) long crutch travelling years ago.
A loss of a reasonably successful sales career at age 55.
I don’t that it was an” error in judgment”.
All I is what subsequent surgeons have .
This has become a true life changing disaster, and I’m facing another surgery or an amputation.
The cramps started a week ago in my hammer toed digit next to my big toe, and that rushed me to an emergency room for morphine therapy.
Good G!!…the pain mgmt doctor has me filling a fentanyl lollipop prescription, and THAT’s WHAT THEY GIVE TERMINAL CANCER victims.
Why they call my condition Mortons Neuroma since it’s between my big and next toe on the bottom baffles me.
That’s the official diagnosis, and all I know to be the truth.
As an end to this rant (yes I get angry when I’m getting pounded by pain) the cortisone shots I’m convinced God only gives us “X” number of shots that work in our lifetime.
After that, they’re completely ineffective.
So…….hold on to those times you get them for “special” life events.
You only get a short few that dull the misery.
One final comment to the struggling:
Avoid Podiatrists.
They are only trained to operate on the foot, and everyone as they age gets foot pain.
So comparatively (vs) an Orthopedic surgeon, which would you think is a better choice?
I know what I’ll choose if I am destined for the knife again.
Thanks………I need to vent from time to time.
Just because it’s: “Only Your Foot”!………does not indicate the minimalization of the seriousness of this malady.
RA is a different condition altogether but I can see how that would aggravate the condition of Mortons Neuroma also. If you can provided a few more details about your type of foot pain perhaps we can point you to the right resources
Very True anyone who says is “only your foot” does not know what they are talking about and you need to see another doctor. An orthopedic surgeon is a good doctor to see as they do have extensive training in bones. I wish you luck with your foot issues.
Any type of bone removal should be done only as a last resort and all other conservative treatments should be persued first. Thank you for sharing and I hope others will learn to not rush into surgery
Hi I had neuroma surgery just a few years ago on both feet…the pain was excruciating and i had tried all conservative treatments, from acupuncture and massage to alcohol and cortisone shots. i am a 45 year old flight attendant and being on my feet is required for my livelihood. Since the surgery I have taken great care to not wear any shoe that even remotely hurts my feet. However recently i have felt the pain begin to resurface…not as severe as before but still disabling at times. I’ve read on stump neuromas…maybe i have one? and about cryosurgery….I am prepared to do what it takes to solve this problem but don’t know if another procedure would be advised.I’m too young to be forced to be sedentary and there’s still so much i want to do…Kilimanjaro for example…Is cryosurgery a safe method? have also read that many drs dont do it because its a reckless procedure where healthy tissue may be destroyed…On the other hand wearing comfort shoes at all times…well..its not ver sexy…so it poses a whole slew of other issues…wardrobe limtations etc… any advice? I ‘m in NY and would appreciate a recommendation or a lead to solve my problem w my feet…thank you for your time…
This site and Q & A has been very helpful to me in understanding my condition. I let the pain go on too long. At first it was just when I wore high heels and with certain shoes. Later, I could not walk long distances enven in my tennis shoes. It has finally manifested in being almost full time pain. I have had shots in my feet, have changed doctors and now feel comfortable that I will be able to resolve this problem, but I would urge anyone to seek out a foot and ankle specialist immediately if they are having foot pain. It is going to take time for me to get better and may require surgery. This can be very diabilitating, for anyone who needs to walk and we all do, we don’t realize how important our feet are until they are too painful to walk on. Get medical attention right away.
I was just diagnosed with Morton’s Neuroma. I went to my Orthopedic for a broken foot last October that I had been walking on for 2 months. I went back because I thought it had re-broke. Bones are healed fine. I do have bad bunions on both sides of my feet, and both feet. They gave me an injection which numbed my fourth toe for about a have an hour. 2 days later I can’t even rub it without it hurting. They did tell me to take it easy for a few days but instead I rode a mile on my bike which ended in major pain. Did I interfere with the healing or what? It does hurt really bad I can’t even lay in bed comfortably because when it rubs on the bed it hurts so bad. Should I wait or call my doctor and explain? Please help, te pain feels like it’s getting worse by the day instead of better.
I got an injection yesterday for my Morton’s neuroma and it has stopped the burning but the pain in major. What can I do? Alieve or Advil don’t touch it. Plus the toes next to my smallest feels like it could pop off any minute. Any suggests please write back. Thanks!
I am pretty sure I have these little buggers in my feet. Going to the doc tomorrow. Hopefully not another loser. Years ago I found out I had a bone “Cyst” not a bone spur in my heel, EXTREMELY painful. So I go to this joke of a doc, he looked at my MRI results and said “I’ve seen people with bigger bone cysts than yours and theirs don’t hurt them” I left crying. So I am very scared that now I have these neuroma things and nobody is going to help me, since I am, after all, just being a big baby! But thank you all for the helpful info. Glad to know I’m not imagining my feet swelling up after I’ve been standing all day then the nerves hurting so bad I can barely walk when I get home. Thanks again….
I have been fighting foot pain for 6 years. Early diagnois was Mortons nueroma. I said fine show it to me in an MRI. The podiatrist said okay but you need to really agrivate it, so the day before the MRI I dug a trench with a spade.
After reading the MRI the podiatrist handed me off to an associate who tried treating me with drugs. Prednison worked early on for a short time. Went thru Lyrica and Cymbalta before abandoning them to see an orthopedics doctor. After orthodic didn’t work, I gave in and he cut into my foot and left me numb between 2 toes. The pain didn’t go away so I assumed the pain was not from a neuroma. I spent 2 years with pain doctors and failed at 2 tries to implant spinal column stimulators. Now with a new orthopedic surgen I have another surgery scheduled to fix the 1st (poorly done) surgery.
No one has told me about the alcohol alternative. Am I too late to try it? I should also say the pain is in both feet.
Great One…
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