If There’s Pain Afoot, We Can Help

At our Remuera physio clinic, we treat a range of foot and ankle injuries as part of our professional physiotherapy services. We can help people overcome the pain caused by ankle sprains, syndesmosis injuries, plantar fasciitis, achilles tendinosis and cuboid syndrome. That last one is an interesting condition, and it can be a very painful one.

If you’re experiencing pain on the outside of your foot, and it gets worse when you put weight on your foot, you could well have cuboid syndrome. Walking will become uncomfortable, especially when you are pushing off the ground with your toe. Another thing you could observe is that when you walk, you may turn your feet in to try and lessen the pain on the outside of your foot. In some extreme cases, this may even result in a limp and you may need to use crutches to help you walk.

This condition is centred around the cuboid bone, a small bone that is connected to the heel bone (calcaneus) by soft tissue structures like  ligaments and the joint capsule. Because of where it is located, this bone takes on a substantial load when walking and running, and it can be very injury prone if the mechanics of the foot are altered by factors such as poor muscle balance and low-quality footwear.

When this occurs, the cuboid bone can get very stiff, almost as if it is locked in a certain position. It can be thought of as a slight dislocation because with cuboid syndrome, the bone drops down towards the sole of your foot and gets stuck there.This can cause a sharp pain on the outside of your foot, or an ongoing ache. Because cuboid syndrome is regarded as a mechanical problem with the midfoot, physiotherapy treatments are regarded as the best way to reduce pain and return you to normal function.

Our treatment options might include manipulation of the cuboid bone to get it back into place, followed by massage, strengthening and stretching exercises for your foot and lower limb, and taping. Of course, the exact course of treatment will be determined once we have made our initial assessment. So, if that pain on the outside of your foot isn’t going away, and you’ve adopted an unusual walking gait to try and protect that sore outer foot, contact us.  We’ll do our very best to get you out of pain and walking properly again.