Blog Posts for Ankle Pain

The North Florida Bone & Joint Specialists blog provides the latest information on orthopaedic conditions, injuries and procedures.

Treating Pain with Peripheral Nerve Stimulation

Chronic pain management continues to be a challenge for those looking for an effective non-opioid analgesia option. At North Florida Bone and Joint Specialists, Dr. Erik Nilssen and Dr. Josh Hackel provide patients with several alternatives, including Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS). Performed under local anesthesia on an outpatient basis, PNS is an extremely safe procedure that is noted to be effective in most individuals selected for treatment. PNS involves two steps. During the initial testing phase, the electrode is connected to an external device. If the trial is successful with pain relief, then a small lead or wire is implanted into the patient’s body under the skin.

The Right Shoes

Footwear serves several useful functions, including protecting our feet, cushioning our body weight, providing comfort and, of course, adding a fashionable element to our wardrobe choices. However, selecting the proper footwear can also make a difference in your overall foot health. As you consider those fun new kicks, we encourage you to be mindful of how the correct type of shoe can help you avoid injuring or further exacerbating existing foot and ankle conditions. Specifically, ill-fitting shoes can be painful and cause issues like bunions, hammertoes, plantar fasciitis, Lisfranc injuries and more.

Treating Ankle Arthritis

May is National Arthritis Awareness Month, and of the more than 100 forms of this painful condition, many can affect the ankle. In fact, almost half of people in their 60s and 70s have arthritis of the foot and/or ankle, but not all of them have symptoms.

Os Trigonum: What You Need to Know

Do you have recurring ankle pain, especially when walking or extending your ankle or heel? You might be among the roughly 10% of people with an extra or “accessory” foot bone called the os trigonum.

Arthritis and Hyaluronic Acid

Arthritis literally translates to “inflammation of the joint” and describes the degenerative process through which a joint space loses its “cushioning,” whether are the result of injury, illness or the natural process of aging. It is the leading cause of musculoskeletal pain and can be found in almost every part of the body, from the shoulder all the way down to the smallest joint of the toe. Our joints are intricate structures shaped from cartilage, bone, muscle and connective tissue, all of which can gradually weaken over time or be damaged by acute injury. While there are more than one hundred known types of arthritis, the three most common forms are osteoarthritis, which is by far the most prevalent; rheumatoid arthritis, which is caused by the body’s own immune system generating a chronic inflammatory response in the joints; and post-traumatic arthritis, which is caused by the lingering structural damage of acute injuries.