Morton’s neuroma is a condition that involves a thickening of the tissue that surrounds the small nerve leading to the toes. It tends to develop under the ligament connecting the metatarsal bones to the front of your foot, and is most common underneath the third or fourth toes on your feet.
Morton’s neuroma can develop for a number of reasons, but stress, trauma, excessive irritation and poor-fitting shoes can all lead to its onset. The condition can cause mild to severe symptoms, but the most common symptom is the sensation that you’re walking on a marble or stone. While it may not be the most painful sensation in the world, it’s very irritating, which leads many people to seek treatment.
However, Morton’s neuroma isn’t always easy to treat, at least with conservative treatment. Shoe changes and corticosteroid injections are only successful about 50 percent of the time, which means surgery is in the cards for about half the people who develop the condition. On a positive note, surgery to treat the neuroma is successful at relieving symptoms about 95 percent of the time, so if it does progress to this point, odds are surgery will take care of your symptoms. Below, we take a closer look at what to expect from surgery for Morton’s neuroma.
Morton’s Neuroma Surgery
Surgery is designed to remove the entrapped nerve to alleviate symptoms. As you might imagine, if the nerve is removed, the patient will experience a numbness or a lack of sensation at the location, but this is typically preferred to pain, pressure or irritation.
Surgery is usually performed on an outpatient basis. After the area is numbed through a conscious sedation or similar technique, the surgeon makes an incision on either the top or bottom of the foot, depending on the exact location of entrapment. The incision is most often made on the top of the foot, but sometimes the surgeon approaches from the bottom. The surgeon then carefully navigates to the location of the entrapped nerve and excises it. Sutures are then used to seal the incision site, and the patient is moved to a recovery room following the short procedure.
You’ll typically be released the same day and allowed to walk in a protective boot. After about two weeks, you’ll return to the surgeon to have your sutures removed. Prior to this, you’ll want to avoid getting the area wet when bathing. Following their removal, normal bathing will be allowed.
Full recovery can take anywhere from 6-12 weeks, as you’ll want to slowly increase the stress you put on your feet. Certain exercises like swimming and working on an elliptical can occur after sutures have been removed, but it may take longer for extended walking to feel comfortable, and it can take up to 12 weeks for running to feel comfortable. Driving is usually allowed right away for those who had surgery on their left foot, but it can take 2-6 weeks to receive clearance to drive if the operation was performed on your right foot.
Finally, it’s also not uncommon for patients to have sensations of discomfort or pain in the area in the first few weeks after their surgery. The body learning to adjust to the altered neuro-pathway in the foot, so there may be some minor sensations in the area as the body heals. These typically fade as you progress through your recovery.
