How Do You Know if You Broke Your Foot

Broken Pes

Broken Foot Overview

Broken bones (also chosen fractures) in the pes are very common. In fact, about i out of every 10 broken bones occurs in the foot. Hither'due south why.

The human being foot has 26 bones.
Divide the foot into 3 parts: the hindfoot, the midfoot, and the forefoot.
- There are 2 bones in the hindfoot. These are the talus, which is where the foot attaches to the leg, and the calcaneus, which forms the heel.
- Five smaller bones called the navicular, cuboid, and 3 cuneiforms brand upward the midfoot.
- The long part of the foot is called the forefoot and contains 19 bones. There is a metatarsal for each of the 5 toes, the big toe is made up of 2 phalanges, and the other toes each have three phalanges.
- In addition, the foot sometimes has some small pebble-like bones called sesamoid bones. These bones do not perform any necessary role and are often chosen accessory bones.

Broken Foot Causes

Bones ordinarily break when something happens to beat out, bend, twist, or stretch the bone.

Toes are often cleaved when you accidentally boot something difficult.
Heels are often broken when you autumn from a superlative and land on your feet.
Other bones in the foot sometimes break when you twist or sprain an ankle.
Most basic break of a sudden considering of an accident. Occasionally, modest cracks can form in bones over a longer menses of time from repeated stress on the bones. These are called stress fractures. They occur most commonly in soldiers hiking in full gear or in athletes, such equally dancers, runners, and gymnasts.
Broken bones are more common in children than in adults.
- In adults, bones are stronger than ligaments (which connect bones to other bones) and tendons (which connect bones to muscles). But in children, ligaments and tendons are relatively stronger than bone or cartilage. Equally a event, injuries that may only crusade a sprain in an developed may crusade a cleaved os in a child. However, a child's forefoot is more often than not flexible and very resilient to injuries of whatever kind.
- When metatarsal or phalangeal fractures exercise occur, they may be difficult to recognize, because many parts of a growing kid's bone practice not bear witness upward well on 10-rays. For this reason, it is sometimes helpful to get Ten-rays of the child'southward other, uninjured pes to compare to the hurt foot.

Broken Foot Symptoms

Broken bones in the foot cause pain and swelling.

Usually (but not always) the pain is and so bad, you are not able to walk. Cleaved basic in the toes crusade less pain, and you lot may be able to walk with a cleaved toe.
Bruising of the foot with a broken bone is also common.
Sprains can likewise cause bad pain, swelling, and bruising, so it is usually not possible to tell if a foot is cleaved or sprained just by looking at information technology.

Here'southward what to do when examining an injured foot for a possible broken bone.

Have the shoes and socks off both feet and compare them side by side to figure out how much swelling is present in the injured foot.
Look for any large cuts or wounds. Large cuts or wounds that expose a cleaved os are more serious.

When to Seek Medical Care

It is important to see a md any fourth dimension y'all think you may take broken a bone in your pes.

For less severe injuries, your doctor may want to see you in the function or may choose to have y'all go to the emergency section. If you lot think you accept broken your pes, and you can't reach your doctor right away, it is reasonable to go to the emergency department to exist examined.

Call 911, if needed, for transport to the emergency department. Exercise non attempt to drive with a broken foot.

Go immediately to the nearest emergency department if these weather develop with a suspected cleaved foot:

The foot is blue, cold, or numb.
The foot is misshapen, deformed, or pointing in the wrong direction.
There is a large cut or wound nearly a possible broken bone.
You lot take severe hurting.
You feel you demand immediate treatment for whatever other reason.

Exams and Tests

The doctor will enquire you about the injury and examine you. Ten-rays are often useful in diagnosing cleaved bones in the foot, but sometimes they are not needed.

Injured toes are ordinarily treated in the same manner whether they are broken or just bruised, so X-rays are often optional for these injuries.
Sometimes a medico's examination is all that is needed to be certain bones in the midfoot are non cleaved. Doctors may apply the "Ottawa foot rules" to determine if an 10-ray is needed. An Ten-ray is required merely if there is any pain in the malleolar "mid foot" zone AND any ane of the following symptoms is present:
- Pain when the doctor pushes over the base of the fifth metatarsal bone
- Pain when the medico pushes over the navicular bone
- Inability to take 4 steps, both immediately after injury and at the examination

Other ways of taking pictures of the basic of the human foot (such as a bone scan, CT, MRI, or ultrasound) can be performed to expect for unusual or subconscious injuries, merely they are rarely needed. These tests mostly are not obtained while in the emergency department and usually are ordered only after consultation with an orthopedist or foot surgeon.

Cleaved Foot Treatment Self-Care at Home

First aid for people with human foot injuries is stabilization and superlative of the injured foot.

Any splint that keeps the injured foot from moving is effective. Ofttimes a pillow wrapped around the foot like a stirrup and so taped or tied with an elastic bandage works well.
Do not wrap the human foot and then tightly that it cuts off the blood supply to the foot. Whatsoever splint that causes the foot to injure worse, turn blue, or makes it more than hard to wiggle the toes, should exist removed correct away.
Elevation of the injured human foot reduces swelling and pain. Proper elevation requires the foot to be at a level college than the rest of the body. Prevarication apartment with the foot propped upward on several pillows.
Water ice wrapped in a small towel and practical to the injured foot may also reduce swelling and hurting for the kickoff several hours after an injury.
Do non effort to walk on an injured human foot if walking is painful.

Injured toes normally heal well fifty-fifty if they are cleaved. They can normally be treated at dwelling house unless the toe seems to exist very plain-featured or pointing in the incorrect direction.

Treatment involves splinting the injured toe to the skilful toe adjacent to information technology. This is chosen "buddy taping."
Place some padding (ordinarily cotton balls) between the injured and good toe and tape them deeply with a broad medical record. They should exist secure plenty to provide support just not so tight as to cutting off blood supply to the toes.
A shoe with a fairly rigid sole like a wooden sandal, a clog, or a rigid flat-bottom shoe from a medical supply store is also helpful.

Medical Handling

Handling for a broken bone in the human foot depends on which os is broken and how it is cleaved. Some broken bones in the human foot tin can be treated with crutches and flat-bottom shoes, others require splints or casts, and still others crave surgery to repair the basic.

Crutches are used to help you lot walk when you have a hurt foot.
When walking using crutches it is important that they fit right and that yous utilise them correctly. Your doc should adjust your crutches to fit you and show you how to use them.
When using crutches, it is important to put your weight on your arms and hands. Practice non put your weight on your underarms (armpits). This could hurt the nerves that are in your underarms.
To avoid falling, utilise your crutches only on firm ground.

Your doctor will tell you whether or not y'all should bear any weight on your injured pes.

To utilize crutches in a "non-weight begetting" way, you should go on the knee of your injured leg bent whenever y'all walk, to keep the injured foot from ever touching the ground. Do not let information technology touch even to help with balance.
To use crutches for "fractional weight bearing" or "weight bearing as tolerated," you lot can allow your injured foot affect the ground only when the crutches are as well touching the footing, so that some of your weight is on your foot and some is on the crutches. Always let your injured leg swing with the crutches. If it hurts when you walk, put more weight on the crutches and less on your injured foot.

Next Steps

Follow-upwards with your dr. or orthopedist often is needed to make sure that pes fractures are healing well. Follow-up is particularly important if pain continues or if you have difficulty walking.

Prevention

It is ever better to prevent broken bones than to care for them.

Construction workers and others at hazard for foot injuries should ever wearable steel-toed protective boots.
Sports always should exist performed with well-fitting supportive athletic shoes.
When riding in a motorcar, do not allow passengers to dangle feet out the window or place anxiety up on the dashboard.
Always wear a seatbelt when riding in a automobile.

Outlook

Toe fractures are mutual and generally heal well with niggling or no therapy. Although the bones may take iii-viii weeks to heal, hurting usually improves much before. Rarely, very severe fractures, especially of the big toe, may crave a cast or surgery.

Metatarsal fractures usually heal well. The kickoff metatarsal (the one attached to the large toe) sometimes requires a cast or surgery and a prolonged period on crutches, only the center three metatarsals can usually be treated with a rigid flat-bottom shoe and partial weight bearing. "March fracture" is a metatarsal stress fracture that unremarkably occurs in joggers and requires stopping jogging for 4-6 weeks.
The fifth metatarsal (the one fastened to the pinkie toe) is the almost commonly cleaved os in the midfoot. There are 2 general types.
- Ane type is the proximal avulsion fracture. These are very common and usually happen at the same time as a sprained ankle. They heal very well with a rigid flat-bottom shoe or rubberband bandage and weight begetting every bit tolerated.
- The other type is the Jones fracture, which is much less common but does non heal as well. This fracture gets worse with fourth dimension if you lot keep walking on it, so non-weight bearing is very important. People with this fracture are more likely to develop problems healing that require an operation.
Fractures at the joint between the cuneiforms and the metatarsals are called Lisfranc fractures. These are rare, merely can be difficult to diagnose and treat. Weight-bearing X-rays (taken while standing on the injured foot) are sometimes needed to expect for this problem. These fractures sometimes require surgery.
Navicular fractures are rare and virtually often represent stress fractures in immature athletes. They usually heal well with a rigid flat-bottom shoe and weight bearing as tolerated. Severe fractures through navicular bone sometimes crave surgery.
Calcaneal fractures frequently occur in people who fall from a height and state on their anxiety. These people often have other injuries besides, then they should be examined carefully. The most common fracture of the calcaneus, the intraarticular joint depression fracture, ordinarily requires surgery. Other fractures of the calcaneus can ordinarily exist treated with splints or casts and non-weight bearing.
There are many types of Talar fractures, some of which are difficult to diagnose and treat. Lateral process fractures often occur from snowboarding injuries. Posterior procedure (Shepherd) fractures are found in athletes who dance or boot. The diagnosis of these injuries often cannot exist fabricated in the physician's role or emergency department on the initial visit and require bone scans or other studies if symptoms continue. Treatments vary merely frequently crave splints or casts and a period of non-weight bearing.

Multimedia

Media file one: Broken foot. Proper use of crutches is shown on the left. Crutch tips are shoulder width autonomously. Elbows are directly and locked. Pads at the top of the crutches are 3 fingerbreadths below the armpit and press against the side of the chest. Incorrect apply of crutches is shown on the correct.

Media file 2: Broken human foot. Proper employ of crutches for non-weight begetting. The knee on the injured leg is bent to keep the injured foot off the basis. Crutch tips are placed in front of you as you walk, and the good leg swings forward betwixt the crutches as shown.

Synonyms and Keywords

pes fractures, sesamoid basic, toe fracture, metatarsal fracture, Lisfranc fracture, navicular fracture, calcaneal fracture, talar fracture, cleaved foot, Ottawa foot rules

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Source: https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/broken-foot