While winter in Columbus is not the time of year when people are running around barefoot, the holidays can mean a veritable maze of wrapping paper, tree pine needles and ornament hooks to navigate around in stocking covered feet at parties. Stepping on a Barbie or stray Lego is usually just an “ouch” moment, but puncture wounds of the foot can lead to serious consequences.
Puncture wounds are very common foot injuries. Unfortunately, most people only contact their doctor about these wounds after signs of infection or serious illness have begun. The greater the depth of the wound, the higher the potential is for serious consequences to develop. For most superficial punctures with no signs of infection such as redness, swelling, drainage or warmth, your podiatrist will simply need to clean the injury and check and ensure no foreign bodies remain in the foot. When a foreign body remains in the tissues of the foot, the body reacts to the material and may form a wall of tissue around it called a granuloma or an inclusion cyst. Over time, the granuloma or inclusion cyst may become more irritating than the initial injury and feel as though a mass or lump has grown in the bottom of the foot. Such masses, along with the foreign body that caused them will need to be removed by your podiatrist to alleviate symptoms.
If signs of infection do appear, you should contact your podiatrist immediately. Deep wounds can reach the bone and cause an infection of the bone, or osteomyelitis. It can take days to weeks before redness, swelling, severe pain and drainage develop in osteomyelitis, and once they have appeared, the faster bone and joints are destroyed by the underlying infection. So don’t wait until 2013 to take care of any foot punctures caused by stepping on a broken ornament, holiday light or pine tree needle – the faster you receive care the better your feet will heal!
Please visit www.ColumbusFoot.com for more information or call 614-885-3338 (FEET) to schedule an appointment with a podiatrist in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Podiatry & Surgery is located on the North side of Columbus, Ohio near Worthington.
Columbus Podiatry & Surgery has opened a new location in Gahanna, near Easton. Please call 614-476-3338 (FEET) for an appointment with a podiatrist in Gahanna, OH today.
