OAKLAND, CA - SEPTEMBER 5: Mike Trout #27 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim hits a home run ... [+]
Something’s afoot with Mike Trout, the center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in California of the USA on Earth. The eight-time Major League Baseball All-Star and two-time American League Most Valuable Player will undergo season-ending surgery for Morton’s Neuroma, according to ESPN.
This is not a neuroma in a guy named Morton or a neuroma that happens to be owned by Morton. This is a neuroma in Trout’s foot, which is presumably owned by Trout. A neuroma is when nerve tissue swells, grows abnormally, or even forms a tumor that’s typically benign. Such a situation can result when a nerve is irritated or damaged.
A Morton’s neuroma is one that specifically occurs in a nerve in the foot called the intermetatarsal plantar nerve. The most common location of this type of neuroma is between the third and fourth toes. Morton’s neuromas don’t always cause symptoms but when they do you typically feel burning pain in the ball of your foot, tingling and numbness in your toes, or the sensation of having a pebble in your shoe when there is no pebble. The following illustration shows where the burning pain commonly occurs:
This illustration shows where pain commonly occurs from from Morton's neuroma, also known as ... [+]
Activities such as running, jogging, repeated jumping, or excessive amounts of river dancing can cause the repeated trauma that leads to a Morton’s neuroma. It can also result from the nerve being pinched or compressed from tight shoes or high heels. Foot deformities such as flat feet, high arches, bunions, or hammertoes can change the orientation of the bones around the nerve and the dynamics of your walking and running thus making your intermetatarsal plantar nerve more susceptible to trauma.
If you have any of the aforementioned symptoms, see your doctor. (Of course, make sure that you empty your shoes of pebbles first.) Your doctor will feel your foot for any tenderness or masses and perhaps image your foot to look for a neuroma and rule out other possible problems such as stress fractures.
If your doctor does diagnose you with a Morton’s neuroma, he or she may first recommend a change of shoes or adding arch supports, footpads, or other types of inserts may help relieve pressure on the nerve. Physical therapy may also help.
If all of these don’t help, you doctor may proceed to injecting the area with cortisone to reduce the inflammation.
If symptoms persist, then the next step may be attempting to destroy the neuroma tissue by injecting alcohol, inserting a supercold needle, or applying radiowaves to the area.
Here a doctor injects the foot of a patient suffering from a Morton's neuroma while using ultrasound ... [+]
If all of these fail to relieve the problems, the last resort is surgery to remove the neuroma. Such a procedure is called a neurectomy. Surgery isn’t always completely successful. In up to a third of the cases, scar tissue can form and cause symptoms similar to that of a neuroma. With Trout undergoing surgery, presumably the more conservative measures were unsuccessful.
With the surgery, Trout will be “out of season.” The Los Angeles Angeles have no hope of making the playoffs, being in fourth place in the AL West, so Trout is probably looking to get a head start on next season.
