Neuromas of the foot continue to be quite a challenge for a majority of patients. Neuromas are often characterized by a burning or tingling pain in the foot, especially the front of the foot. Typically patients are female between the ages of 40 and 60. Often times this pain is exacerbated by shoes or high heels. Other symptoms include numbness of the forefoot, especially to the third and fourth toes. Some people describe it as a balled up sock on the bottom of their foot. One of the best available and long-term treatments that we have found for neuromas are alcohol injection therapy.

This procedure involves using a TENS unit to stimulate the foot to decrease the pain of the injection. We then use freezing cold spray and the smallest needle available to decrease pain and then, under direct ultrasound imaging, inject the neuroma with alcohol. The alcohol is dehydrated alcohol that via osmosis removes the water from the nerve covering. The nerve covering then can no longer transmit pain signal to the brain. The nerve that causes a neuroma is a sensory nerve that controls pain and temperature to the skin but does not control motor movement of the toes. We have found an extremely high success rate utilizing this procedure. If you have a neuroma and are contemplating surgery or have tried multiple other therapies with no success please feel free to give us a call at 425-391-8666 or contact us online for an appointment.