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A Morton’s neuroma is a painful foot condition that can be difficult to live with. It’s usually the result of compression or irritation of the tissue around a nerve in the ball of your foot, which causes burning pain, tingling, or numbness between the third and fourth toes. In some cases, this pain will extend out to the tips of the toes.
Suffering from symptoms of a Morton’s Neuroma? Take the first step to finding relief from your pain with our free interactive assessment.
A Morton’s neuroma, sometimes called an intermetatarsal neuroma because the location of the affected nerve is in the ball of the foot between your metatarsal bones, causes a unique pain that makes this condition relatively simple to self-diagnose.
The main symptoms of Morton’s neuroma include:
Some patients describe feeling like there is a lump or a pebble stuck under their foot. Although the symptoms might be mild at the beginning, they will likely become worse over time.
The most common cause of a Morton’s neuroma is being on your feet for extended periods and wearing tight, narrow, or high-heeled shoes that compress or squeeze your feet. As your foot becomes irritated, the affected nerve will thicken and the resulting pressure causes nerve pain. Wearing the same shoes will cause further pressure and lead to increased amounts of nerve pain.
If tight shoes are not the cause, it is possible that a Morton’s neuroma is related to another foot condition. Morton’s neuroma is often associated with:
You should also consider if any of your regular activities could be causing your foot pain. A Morton’s neuroma could develop if you often participate in sports that require tight shoes, such as skiing, or by wearing something like ballet shoes. Sports that require a lot of running on hard surfaces and pressure on the ball of your foot, like indoor racquetball or basketball, should also be taken into account.
If you are experiencing pain that indicates Morton’s neuroma, start your diagnosis with our interactive condition assessment tool below.
If you are experiencing the single-sided, lower body pain that indicates sciatica or sciatic nerve pain, start your diagnosis with our interactive condition assessment tool.
Injured and irritated nerves can take several weeks or even several months to improve, even if the cause of the problem has been solved.
Often, a Morton’s neuroma can be treated at home without surgical intervention. These are a few of the ways you can reduce or even eliminate the foot pain associated with this painful condition:
While more than 75% of patients will respond to more conservative, non-surgical treatments, some will not. If your pain continues or becomes unbearable, it’s probably time to see a foot expert at the Integrated Spine Institute.
After a few months of the treatments above, surgery might be recommend in order to remove the neuroma or to widen the space through which the affected nerve travels. Surgeries of this kind are typically done as outpatient procedures using local anesthesia.
If you are suffering from painful symptoms associated with Morton’s neuroma and are ready to take the next step, try our interactive treatment finder below to find right treatment for you.
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