If you’ve been dealing with persistent foot or ankle pain, one of the most frustrating parts can be simply not knowing what is actually causing it.
You know where it hurts. You know which movements make it worse. You might even have tried changing your shoes, resting, stretching or taking pain relief. But without understanding the structure that’s causing the problem, it can be difficult to know what to do next.
At Doncaster Foot Clinic, this is one of the reasons we’ve invested in diagnostic musculoskeletal (MSK) ultrasound.
It gives us another valuable piece of the puzzle when assessing foot and ankle pain and allows our specially trained podiatrist to look beneath the surface, in real time, during your assessment.
What is diagnostic ultrasound?
Most people hear the word ultrasound and immediately think of pregnancy scans, but ultrasound has many different uses within healthcare. Musculoskeletal ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to produce real-time images of structures within the body.
For podiatry, that means we can assess structures within the foot and ankle including tendons, ligaments, muscles, joints and other soft tissues. The scan is non-invasive, doesn’t use ionising radiation and can be performed as part of an appropriate clinical assessment.
Importantly though, ultrasound isn’t there to replace the podiatrist. We don’t wiggle a probe around and hope for the best.
We still need to listen to your symptoms, understand how the problem started, physically examine your foot or ankle and assess factors such as movement and function. Ultrasound simply gives us additional information that can help us build a clearer overall clinical picture.
Why is ultrasound so useful for foot and ankle pain?
Two people can point to a very similar area of their foot and describe very similar pain, while the underlying cause may be different. That’s why we don’t like guessing & have invested heavily to make sure we don’t have to.
MSK ultrasound can be particularly useful when investigating conditions and injuries involving soft tissue structures. Depending on your symptoms and clinical findings, this can include problems such as:
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Achilles Tendinopathy
- Tendon & Ligament Injuries
- Morton’s Neuroma
- Bursitis
- Joint Inflammation
- Soft Tissue Injuries
One of the biggest advantages is that ultrasound produces images in real time. So, rather than looking at a single static picture, we may be able to assess a structure as the foot or ankle moves. That can give us useful information about how tissues are behaving and help us relate what we can see on the screen to what you’re actually experiencing.
Better information can mean a more targeted treatment plan
For the team here in Doncaster, investing in diagnostic technology isn’t about ego. Having impressive equipment sitting in the clinic and thinking we look great. When investments are made in our tech, it has to make a meaningful difference to patient care.
If we have a better understanding of which structure is involved, the severity of the problem and what may be contributing to it, we can make more informed decisions about what happens next. That might mean rehabilitation and strengthening exercises. It could mean looking at footwear, biomechanics or orthotics. For some conditions, treatments such as shockwave therapy or laser therapy may form part of the management plan.
Equally importantly, imaging can sometimes help us decide that a particular treatment isn’t appropriate. We don’t believe in throwing every treatment available at a painful foot and hoping something works. Our approach at Doncaster Foot Clinic is to assess first, understand the problem and then recommend the options we genuinely believe are appropriate.
Bringing advanced foot and ankle diagnostics to Doncaster
One of the things we’re particularly proud of is the level of MSK assessment we’re able to offer from our clinic in Wheatley Hills, Doncaster. Our clinic has been designed around modern foot and lower-limb assessment and treatment, with technology including diagnostic ultrasound, shockwave therapy, laser therapy and advanced biomechanical assessment available under one roof.
This is particularly valuable for patients who have been struggling with a problem for months, have tried different approaches without success, or simply want a more detailed assessment of an ongoing foot or ankle injury.
You don’t need to be a professional athlete to benefit from this level of care either, although we do work with the Doncaster Rovers senior squad on a regular basis.
But we also work with people at every level, from athletes trying to return to sport to someone whose main goal is being able to walk the dog, get through a shift at work or enjoy a weekend without constantly thinking about their foot. The technology might be advanced but your goal doesn’t have to be.
Ultrasound can help you understand your injury too
There’s another benefit that we probably don’t talk about enough, in that you can see what we’re looking at. Foot and ankle anatomy can be difficult to understand when someone is explaining it using medical terminology.
Being able to show you the relevant structure on the ultrasound screen can make the conversation much easier. We want our patients to leave their appointments understanding what we think is happening, why we’re recommending a particular approach and what we’re trying to achieve.
For us, that’s an important part of good podiatry.
Bonus? We’re also able to show you, post-treatment, how what we’ve done has impacted your problem. This can help you feel more confident in our services and your investment. If we’re using Ultrasound to diagnose you, we’ve nowhere to hide in your recovery.
Struggling with foot or ankle pain in Doncaster?
If you’ve got ongoing foot pain, heel pain, ankle pain or a sports injury, particularly something that isn’t improving as expected, a detailed podiatry assessment may help establish what is going on.
At Doncaster Foot Clinic, point-of-care MSK ultrasound forms part of our comprehensive Pain and Injury Assessment when clinically appropriate, helping our team investigate the structures involved and plan the next steps.