What Are Bunions

Most people have herd talk of bunions but a great percentage of individuals have no idea what they are.

Bunions are a very common forefoot deformities. A displacement of the bone under the big toe occurs. This makes the big toe point in towards the smaller toes. This movement of the bones causes a bony bulge on the side of the patients foot. Over time the big toe may come to rest under or sometimes over the 2nd toe.

A bunion is much more prevalent in women than men due to women wearing tighter fitting shoes. This condition has been known to cause a variety of different soft tissue and bony complaints which may result in severe pain.

Symptoms usually include redness, swelling and pain which may be present along the inner portion of the foot. Often patients feet may become too wide to fit into their normal size shoe and may experience severe discomfort when the patient is wearing tight shoes. A “hammer toe” can occur at the 2nd toe. This is when the toe contracts and presses on the shoe. As a result this may cause a corn on top of the 2nd toe.

Calluses and corns may occur on the soles of the feet, in between toes and on the bunion joint. Stiffness will often occur at the big toe due to secondary arthritis, this is known as Hallux Rigidus. Other foot conditions which may occur are in growing toe nails and in severe cases the bunion joint may have a fluid filled sack called a bursitis. This usually is very painful and can become infected.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Toe Pain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.