Heel Pain Causes

Heel pain is an extremely common complaint, and there are several common causes. It is important to make an accurate diagnosis of the cause of your symptoms so that appropriate treatment can be directed at the cause. If you have heel pain, some causes include:

Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain. Plantar fasciitis is due to inflammation of the tight tissue located on the underside of the foot. It is responsible for forming the arch of the foot. Common symptoms of plantar fasciitis include: heel pain with prolonged walking/standing and are often worse in the morning.

Heel Spur Pain

A spur is commonly associated with chronic plantar fasciitis as opposed to acute plantar fasciitis. It is where the tissue on the underside of foot solidifies at the heel producing a sharp spur like protuberance which is noted on x-ray examination.

Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome

Tarsal tunnel syndrome causes a large nerve in the back of the foot to become entrapped, or pinched. Similar to carpal tunnel syndrome in the hand, tarsal tunnel syndrome can cause heel pain.

 Fat pad Thinning (Atrophy)

The pad at the bottom of the heel can thin reducing its ability to absorb impact. This absence of the shock absorber can lead to a variety of secondary problems to the heel bone.

 Stress Fracture

Stress fractures of the calcaneus are uncommon. However, should be considered especially in athletes such as long-distance runners who have heel pain. 

Posterior Heel Pain

Posterior heel pain causes symptoms behind the foot, rather than underneath. Posterior heel pain causes include Achilles tendonitis and retro-calcaneal (heel bone) bursitis.

Find out Which One You Have:

It is our job at the London Foot Pain Clinic to sort through these heel pain causes once we see you to establish the:

• Very best treatments
• The likelihood of successful treatment options

Our first aim is to get this right and educated you to how it might have happened. These means are patients are able to make informed choices about the best treatments.

To start your diagnostic process just request a call back using the Contact Us page in the main menu.