Morton's Neuroma
Robert Filice, M.D. Former staff physician

Today I treated a 43 year old woman for the seventh time, initiating treatment in the right foot. She had presented with bilateral foot (left worse than right) and right arm symptoms in late January of 2006 with a prior diagnosis of Morton's Neuroma. She worked at a computer and also had aching and weakness in her arm. She has now had 6 Prolotherapy treatments to the left foot with 80% improvement in symptoms.

Morton's Neuroma can be due to entrapment of the nerve in the foot, and can cause pain, numbness, or burning in the foot. The neuroma was between the third and fourth metatarsal bones, and she had a smaller problem in the same location in the right foot. In her case, it started 10 years ago on the left, and initially the symptoms were only present when she wore a particular pair of shoes.

Prior unsuccessful treatments included acupuncture, orthotics, massage, physical therapy, and surgery. Our feeling is that neuroma symptoms often actually originate from dysfunctional ligaments in the area of the neuroma, rather than arising from the nerve itself. This was apparently true in this case because of her outstanding response to Prolotherapy. Although prolo is intended to work on ligaments and tendons, when we are working in an area of nerve involvement or entrapment, we always use added procaine in the prolo solution. This has a beneficial effect on dysfunctional nerve tissue. She also obtained 95% relief of arm weakness and pain after 6 Prolotherapy treatments to the right elbow. Symptoms often attributed to carpal tunnel more often arise from the tendons and ligaments in the elbow, especially in those who work at a keyboard all day, like this patient. Her new goal now is to attain similar results for the symptoms in her right foot.

There are many patients who have "struck out" attempting to obtain relief from multiple treatment modalities as this patient did. If that is also you, you owe it to yourself to consider getting prolotherapy. See us for an evaluation and possible treatment.

Prolotherapy making someone too tight?
Q. Is it possible that a doctor could have made my area that he was treating for tarsal tunnel too tight making my feet and ankles more painful and inflexible?

A. Dear Foot Pain - it is very easy to loosen areas up but very hard to tighten them. To loosen an area up all one has to do is stretch it or get manipulation. To get areas tightened often they need Prolotherapy. Generally painful/tight areas mean the body is guarding an unstable area. For many with tarsal tunnel symptoms this relates to a dropped navicular bone or stretched ligaments in the area (sometimes the spring ligament). My advice would be to seek out the care of a good chiropracter and a second opinion from another Prolotherapist.

Answered by Ross Hauser, M.D.