Physiotherapists in Sheffield 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.

Common Causes of Disc Prolapse

Spinal surgeons know that most disc herniations they are required to operate on are mostly made up of nucleus pulposus and rarely consist of much of the annulus fibrosis, which never occurs alone in a prolapse. Typical actions which risk prolapse are lifting and carrying, imposing flexion, side bending and compression loads on the lumbar spine at the same time. Combinations of these forces are what make a prolapse more likely, such as falling on the bottom whilst the legs are straight out in front, combining compression and bending. Other combinations could include tripping and so bending forward whilst carrying, reaching forward to catch a heavy object or lifting something heavy after a period when the spine has been in flexion.

If the upper body is pulled forwards suddenly and a force applied this is the most risky posture as the back muscles are contracting most strongly to resist the forward movement at that time and so increasing the compression through the spine. Due to fact that the discs are tighter and more swollen with water in the morning, it seems that disc prolapse may be more likely to occur at this time. Repeated bending in heavy jobs could also cause prolapse with time.