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

Pes Cavus

This condition is also known as high instep or high arch and is a type of foot anatomy where the medial longitudinal arch (arch on the inner side of the foot) is significantly greater than normal. This is the opposite foot deformity to flat foot and may be without symptoms. However the limiting of weight bearing stresses to the heel and the metatarsal heads may put excessive stresses on the ball of the foot, causing calluses to form and a painful front foot problem. This can also go with hammer toes where the toes are flexed up in a clawed manner and take no part in contacting the ground in gait.

Pes cavus may cause difficulties in selecting suitable footwear as the height of the foot in the midfoot region is so much greater than normal, and some people may need insoles to support the arch and allow effective and painless walking. Pes cavus can be hereditary or can be secondary to a neurological or neuromuscular condition. Treatment is usually conservative such as physiotherapy for strengthening and stretching and the provision of custom insoles as surgery to treat foot pain of this cause is unpredictable in outcome.

Knee Osteoarthritis, Stretching and Physiotherapy

Knee osteoarthritis is a common condition with a very large number of sufferers across the world, symptoms including knee pain, swelling, loss of joint movement and limited weight bearing function. Loss of extension of the knee is common and may be related to an increase in the activity of the hamstrings which limits the range of the knee into extension as we walk when a knee is osteoarthritic. Reid and McNair (Physiotherapy, March 2010) looked into this matter in older people as most stretching research has been in younger people. They studied a group of people with osteoarthritis of the knee, giving them three stretches of 60 seconds duration to see if this changed the way the knee behaved.

The two groups who had the stretching showed increased ranges of knee extension, similar in the osteoarthritic and the non-osteoarthritic groups, with some increase in the power available to be exerted. It may be useful to perform hamstring stretches before working on the range and power of the knee and this technique may also have a relevance in knee replacement which is becoming more common as a treatment for end stage osteoarthritis. Limitation of full extension is common after total knee replacement and physios treat it routinely.