By: Michael Zapf, D.P.M., M.P.H., F.A.C.F.O.

If you are a heel pain suffer, and there are lots of you, do I have news for you. If you have gone through the oral medication, the injected medication and more inserts than Dr. Scholls, you know how stubborn this pain can be. You have undoubtedly been told about the surgery. You know that traditionally the surgery was done at the hospital and required a three inch incision along the side of your foot. You also know that the doctor was not 100% sure that it would even work. And that was before he or she told you about the complications. Well, that was then. Now meet Mark

Mark was referred to me by his internist over a year ago for heel pain. He complained that his heel was so sore for the first step in the morning that he hated getting out of bed. After walking for few minutes the pain leveled off to mere torture. Two previous doctors diagnosed his condition as a heel spur and prescribed an assortment of pills, pads and prayers. None helped.

After reviewing his x-rays to make sure he did not have something else going on, I agreed with his previous diagnose. I went for my secret weapon: the low-Dye strapping. This is something that I guess only podiatrists and the occasional physical therapist do. It is adhesive tape applied to he foot in such a way as to relax a ligament on the bottom of the foot. Mark, like most people, got instant relief. But for Mark, it lasted only for a short time. This encouraged us to try making shoe inserts, called orthotics. These reduced his pain from "torture" to just "bad". A relief, to be sure, but the pain was still a problem. I fiddled and fiddled with his orthotics but couldn't get his pain to go away.

Podiatrists see a lot of heel pain. We are truly experts on heel pain. We take great pride in controlling just about every patient's pain without surgery. Just about. For all of us, however, every fiftieth patient, or so, exceeds our conservative talents and surgery is needed. I personally feel defeated when I can't control the pain without surgery. This was Mark.

I told Mark about a new procedure I have been performing for heel pain. It involves a tiny (1/4 inch) incision on the bottom of the heel and cutting a ligament-like structure. It requires just one stitch and is done in the office. Best of all, the patient walks on his foot the same day in a tennis shoe. I performed Mark's procedure last Friday and he went back to work on Tuesday. He reported that his foot is sore but not nearly as sore as it was before the procedure. He is even climbing ladders! In less than a week!

I have been performing this procedure for a little over six months on about a dozen patients. I am happy to report that every patient has improved, most completely. There have been no problems or complications. My experience seems to mirror those who have been performing this procedure for two or three years.

Heel pain is common and sometimes severe. Finally, failure of conservative therapy no longer means a complicated and sometimes successful surgery. This new procedure works. If you want more information on this procedure, please call my office. Or ask Mark, he's the one up there on the ladder.