"Doctor, my child has been crying about foot pain every day for several weeks recently, I thought it would be good to change her into a pair of comfortable shoes, but it didn't work." The child's mother was a little anxious, and searched for relevant articles on the Internet, only to find that the child may have flat foot syndrome, so she hurried to the hospital for consultation.
If you find that your child always says that his feet hurt when walking, parents must not be careless, once the golden period of intervention is missed, it may have a serious impact on the child.
Recently, the chief physician of the foot and ankle surgery department of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University and Dr. Guo Hao were guests in the live broadcast room of the medical federation media "Dialogue with Famous Doctor Lin Xin", and conducted a live broadcast with the theme of "Children walking with foot pain, beware of flat feet "causing trouble", and discussed the related issues of flat foot treatment that netizens are concerned about.
(Chief physician who joined the army and Dr. Guo Hao in the live broadcast)
Scientific understanding of the arch of the foot
The arch of the foot is a product of upright walking in the process of human evolution, and is divided into medial longitudinal arch, lateral longitudinal arch and transverse arch. In our usual physical activities, such as running, jumping, and walking, we need the arch of the foot to provide us with stable support and sufficient thrust.
The bony arch and the ligaments, fascia, and tendon tissues attached to it can also help us counteract the impact on the foot during activity. Therefore, the health of the arch of the foot is very important to us.
When the structure that maintains the arch is weak or damaged, it is likely to cause the arch to collapse, which is what we call a flat foot.
Theoretically, people with flat feet have insufficient propulsion when walking or exercising, and their exercise ability may be weakened, but there are some special cases with flat arches but super athletic ability (such as "flying man" Bolt), which are related to their acquired efforts and training.
Therefore, individuals feel that asymptomatic flat feet do not require treatment. When flat feet cause foot pain, weakness, fatigue, and even affect standing balance function, we need to find and intervene in time.
Observe flat feet and keep these 2 methods in mind
Generally speaking, our normal soles of the feet are naturally arched, and there is a certain gap between the arch of the foot and the ground when walking, and patients with flat feet, due to the collapse of the inner arch, then the gap between the arch and the ground disappears. After the arch collapses, there will also be abduction of the forefoot and valgus of the heel, and walking is a bit like the "outer figure".
To know if a child has flat feet, you can observe it from two aspects:
First, hit barefoot, the soles of the feet are stained with a layer of water or non-toxic and harmless paint, leaving a footprint on the paper or the ground, you can preliminarily judge whether there are flat feet.
Second, let the child stand on the ground, parents observe the child's two heels from behind, if the two heels are like an "eight", there may be flat feet.
Most people with flat feet have no obvious symptoms, and a small number of patients will have symptoms such as foot and ankle pain, weakness, tiredness, abnormal gait, unstable walking, joint stiffness and even walking disorders.
Flat feet may be combined with plantar fasciitis leading to heel pain, or they may be combined with hallux valgus leading to forefoot pain, and knee pain may be caused by "lower beam is not right and the upper beam is crooked". Flat feet with symptoms, we call it "flat foot syndrome".
Dr. Guo Hao said: "Flat feet, as a foot deformity, may or may not progress, so it is not necessary to intervene too much simply because of fear that the deformity will become more and more serious. There are two main indications for clinical intervention – the most important one is to be symptomatic, symptomatic flat feet may become more and more severe, and the location and degree of pain will change accordingly; In addition, if there are no symptoms, but the deformity is found to be too obvious, you can also consider seeking treatment. ”
Master the development law of the arch of the foot and grasp the critical period of flat foot treatment!
There are two extreme phenomena in the clinic, some people do not care, feel that flat feet are a little painful, and when they are older, they find that the whole foot is stiff.
Some people are too nervous, and when the child is only two or three years old, he is brought to the hospital for treatment.
Here the director of the army reminded everyone: "The development of the arch of the foot takes time, more than 90% of 2-year-old children are flat feet, before the age of 4, as long as the deformity is not too serious, pay attention to observation, parents do not have to be anxious, do not have to spend high prices to order shoes, insoles, not only does not help, but may be harmful." Theoretically, allowing children to walk barefoot is actually more conducive to the development of the arch of the foot. After the age of 5, the child gradually becomes sensible, if the parents find that the child is still flat feet, it does not matter, continue to observe, or bring the child to the clinic, I will teach the child to do some simple foot training to help the arch form. After the age of 8, if the child still has flat feet and some uncomfortable symptoms, please be sure to go to the foot and ankle surgery in time to take corresponding treatment measures. ”
So what can be done to deal with flat foot disease?
1. Conservative treatment. There are many ways to treat conservatively, such as adequate rest, the use of prefabricated arch support insoles or custom insoles, foot function exercises, medications, etc.
2. Surgical treatment. The surgical methods mainly include minimally invasive surgery, soft tissue surgery plus osteotomy surgery and joint fusion surgery. Because each patient has a different severity of the disease, the strategies adopted are different.
Overall, do flat feet need treatment? How is it treated? Be sure to respect the development of the arch of the foot, and after the child grows to a certain age, let a foot and ankle surgeon conduct a professional assessment and guide the appropriate treatment.