Context: Windlass taping is used to reduce pain in plantar fasciitis and thought to take stress off the plantar fascia. Objective: To investigate the effects of windlass taping. Design: Single group, repeated measures. Setting: Outpatient physical therapy clinics. Patients: 20 subjects with plantar fasciitis. Intervention: Windlass taping technique. Main Outcome Measures: Pretaping and posttapi...

Introduction Intrinsic foot muscles and the plantar fascia provide mechanical support for the medial longitudinal arch in gait [1]. In an injury to the plantar fascia (i.e. plantar fasciitis), there may be an increase in load on the intrinsic foot muscles resulting in increased metabolic demand. Phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P MRS) has shown that the ratio of inorganic phosphate...

Objective To investigate the effectiveness of ultrasound guided corticosteroid injection in the treatment of plantar fasciitis. Design Randomised, investigator and participant blinded, placebo

BACKGROUND Ultrasonographic measurement of the plantar fascia can be used to objectively diagnose plantar fasciitis. The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term effectiveness of Extracorporeal Pulse Activated Therapy (EPAT) for the treatment of plantar fasciitis using ultrasonographic measurement as an objective outcome measure, with a minimum followup of 12 months. METHODS Patie...

Hallux rigidus is a “stiff big toe joint”. Patients with this condition, which is a form of arthritis, often report that it feels as if they have to force their big toe to bend at the joint when “toeing off” from the ground while walking. Often times, hallux rigidus results in the joint becoming completely rigid. Movement of the big toe joint occurs typically in an up and down plane only. The u...

OBJECTIVES Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) and corticosteroid injection (CSI) are treatment options for plantar fasciitis. Their clinical outcome comparison remains a debate. Also, the thickness changes of the plantar fascia on objective evaluation under the medium energy ESWT and CSI therapy are elusive. METHODS A total of 97 patients with chronic plantar fasciitis were enrolled in t...

Ultrasound, well recognized as an effective diagnostic tool, reveals a thickening of the plantar fascia in patients with plantar fasciitis/fasciosis disease. The authors hypothesized that ultrasound would also reveal a decrease in the plantar fascia thickness for patients undergoing treatment for the disease, a hypothesis that, heretofore, had been only tested on a limited number of subjects. T...