Plantar Fasciitis Case Study

Background: A meta-analysis indicates that the use of foot orthoses seems to improve foot disability and reduced pain related to chronic plantar fasciitis. Preliminary evidence suggests that plantar fascia thickness greater than 4mm appears related to foot disability in individuals with chronic plantar fasciitis. However, it seems contradictory that inserting more plantar thickness, via foot orthosis or taping, to the already thickened plantar fascia, may be linked to reduced pain and disability. An alternate rationale could be that wearing foot orthosis may augment the sensory perception of these individuals resulting in enhanced outcomes. Sensory perception (i.e. tactile acuity) is robustly linked with cortical processing of tactile stimuli in the primary somatosensory cortex. However, there is a paucity of research that has concurrently described the persistent pain, plantar fascia thickness, range of motion (ROM) and tactile acuity of the involved versus the uninvolved foot.
METHODS: Seven participants (four women, age 50.86 ± 11.08 years), with no history of diabetes mellitus and who had chronic plantar heel pain were enrolled in this descriptive study. Each participant was examined on the involved and uninvolved foot for tactile acuity using a 10g monofilament, plantar fascia thickness using musculoskeletal ultrasound imaging, ankle dorsiflexion and great toe extension ROM, as well as pain pressure threshold at the hand web space and the most painful plantar fascia