You do not need to be an athlete to hurt your foot and ankle. You can easily develop an injury while doing something as basic as walking. Then you may have to live with discomfort and pain resulting from such injuries. Dr. Tyler Gloschat Colorado Springs specializes in sports medicine and offers different foot and ankle pain treatments. Your doctor will gather essential information about you and decide what treatment suits your condition. You can benefit from treatment of trauma of your ankle and foot, foot surgery, and ankle surgeries. Here is a discussion on how those treatments work.
Conservative Treatment
Usually, the first thing you will need to do after hurting your foot or ankle will be first aid. Summarized as RICE, you will need to rest your legs to prevent putting weight on them. You may use ice packs to slow down swelling and reduce pain by placing ice for up to 20 minutes, then resting your feet before placing ice again. Thirdly, you may need to wrap your affected ankle with a compression wrap to keep it supported and immobile. It would help if you did not wrap the affected area too tight to prevent loss of sensation. Lastly, raise your injured leg to the level of your heart to reduce pain and swelling.
Ankle Arthroscopy
The procedure involves inserting an arthroscope into your injured ankle to repair the damage through a few tiny incisions. You may be an ideal candidate for this procedure if you have ankle joint issues that fail to respond to other treatments. Arthroscopy can treat instability resulting from a possible bone deformity, torn ligaments following an accident and trauma, and removal of scar tissue developing during healing. Additionally, arthroscopy can treat impingement which results from overuse of ankles and may have resulted in swelling and stiffness.
Ankle Replacement Surgery
You may require ankle replacement surgery, especially for severe ankle arthritis, which causes stiffness, severe pain, and inflammation. You may also find walking difficult after developing arthritis in your ankle. During surgery, your doctor will administer general anesthesia and then incision through your skin. Your doctor will carefully remove the damaged parts of your bone and then attach a new metal joint surface to your remaining pieces of bone. Your doctor may also insert a little piece of plastic between the joint spaces to allow them to glide easily against each other.
Foot Surgery
Your doctor may perform foot surgery to treat problems relating to your feet, improve function, reduce pain and improve mobility. Your doctor will likely recommend foot surgery if you have foot problems that do not respond well to conservative treatments and exercise. During foot surgery, you can benefit from reconstructive surgery for foot trauma, fusion surgery to ease pain from rheumatoid arthritis, and bunion surgery for treating bunions.
Foot problems are a common concern across all ages, whether or not you are an active sportsperson. Some foot concerns can go away with conservative treatments, while others will fail to respond to this treatment, thus requiring surgical procedures. Surgical options may include arthroplasty for ankle arthritis, ankle replacement surgery for damaged joints, and foot surgery. Your doctor will decide the treatment that suits you depending on how you respond to initial treatments and the severity of your condition. Therefore, do not allow pain to slow you down.