Physiotherapists in Windsor treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Hammer toes

Hammer toes are a common deformity of the foot and often associated with more profound changes in the foot such as pes cavus where the inside foot arch is exaggerated. The small intrinsic foot muscles, which allow the toes to be kept straight as they grip the ground, weaken and the extensor muscles then pull the near part of the toe upwards. This makes the near joints of the toes bend up leading to a clawing of the toes. The extensor tendons can then shorten, leading to a permanent deformity where the person cannot get the toes flat down onto the ground any more.

There are a series of consequences from this deformity. The toes curl up and thereby take up much more room at the end of the shoe, causing the tops of the joints to suffer pressure against the shoe and develop sore areas or calluses. A more spacious toe box in the shoes can relieve this. The metatarsal heads suffer increased pressure from weight bearing and also develop calluses under the ball of the foot where the loading is greatest. In time these changes can lead to foot pain and require stretches or surgical correction.

Trochanteric Bursitis

Pain on the side of the hip is a common complaint and often diagnosed as trochanteric bursitis, even though this diagnosis may not be verifiable. Lateral hip pain can be referred from the lumbar spine or the hip joint but in many cases the pain is located over the large bony prominence at the side of the hip, the greater trochanter. The tendons of several of the large buttock muscles come round and insert into the greater trochanter. On examination a physiotherapist might find great tenderness over the greater trochanter and over the nearby tendon, with pain on resisted hip abduction which stresses the tendons.

Symptoms are aggravated by walking, running or any activity which demands significant power from the buttock muscles. Initially the pain was thought to be inflammation in one of the lubricating sacs positioned between moving structures, known as bursae. Present ideas indicate that degenerative changes may occur within the tendon structures, causing a tendinosis which can be painful. Treatments can include physiotherapy to teach patients eccentric exercises to stress the tendons and force it to repair, steroid injections into the tendon areas which are painful or in severe cases a surgical release.