Bruised toes are one of the most common injuries encountered by trauma surgeons. You can get damaged both during professional activities and at home. Most often, a bruised toe occurs due to carelessness when the patient accidentally touches foreign objects. In this case, acute pain immediately appears, and after a while - redness and swelling of the tissues. A traumatologist treats a bruised toe. This is the doctor you should contact as soon as possible after an injury.
You can make an appointment with a traumatologist in Yaroslavl at the CONSTANTA Clinic. The specialist will examine the injured limb, make a preliminary diagnosis and, if necessary, prescribe additional diagnostic methods. Bruised toes are not as harmless as is commonly believed. Often, after receiving an injury, patients try to deal with pain and swelling on their own for several days, unaware of the presence of an ordinary or marginal fracture of a finger and other serious injuries that can easily be obtained even at home.
Features of the structure of the toes
The toes are based on tubular bones. Each finger is formed by three phalanges, except the thumb, which has only two. Thanks to the movable joints and tendons, the fingers can perform various movements and help a person maintain balance while walking. Even minor damage to the soft and hard tissues of the foot leads to movement restrictions and knocks a person out of the usual rhythm of life.
During a bruise, tissue damage and microtrauma of blood vessels occur. This leads to an increase in edema and the development of an inflammatory reaction. Even a minor injury requires appropriate treatment for a bruised toe. Otherwise, swelling and pain will increase, limiting the patient's physical activity. Often, bruised toes are accompanied by blue discoloration and peeling of the nail plate. In this case, it may require partial or complete removal.
Prevention
To avoid the appearance of inflamed calluses, you must adhere to several rules:
- You need to wear shoes that are the right size. If you experience any discomfort, you should give up some shoes once and for all, otherwise your feet will sweat and suffer from calluses.
- Never wear new shoes if you will be wearing them all day.
- Always carry the patch with you. If you suddenly rub your feet, it will reduce pain when walking.
- Take care of your feet. Use baths, creams, massages and other means so as not to provoke the skin to develop calluses.
- Wear socks to prevent blisters. They significantly reduce skin friction, especially for an active lifestyle.
- Take care of your foot skin hygiene. Clean rough skin with a pumice stone; it is in these areas that calluses most often appear.
- Use silicone or gel pads. They reduce friction and help distribute the load on the feet correctly.
Signs of a bruised or broken toe
The symptoms of a bruise and a broken toe are similar: the patient feels pain that does not allow him to step on the foot, and also notices swelling of the soft tissues. Only a qualified specialist can distinguish a fracture or crack from a bruise. An accurate diagnosis is made based on X-ray data and professional examination.
A patient who has suffered a bruised toe should be alert to the following signs:
- pathological mobility of the toes at the site of injury;
- prolonged pain syndrome, which is poorly relieved by classical analgesics;
- increasing swelling and cyanosis of the skin;
- crunching sound (crepitus) when pressing on the injury site;
- unnatural position of the foot or toes.
If such symptoms appear, it is necessary to make an appointment with a traumatologist and conduct an X-ray examination to make sure that there is no fracture of the toe. Do not self-medicate under any circumstances, even if you are sure that the injury you received is harmless. Our Clinic also employs pediatric traumatologists, and you can show your child to a specialist at any time or seek medical help from an experienced doctor yourself.
With a marginal fracture of the big toe, which often occurs while running, the swelling spreads to the entire foot, and the skin becomes noticeably blue. The patient experiences severe pain and cannot step on his leg; he often takes a forced position, which allows him to spare the limb as much as possible. Signs of a big toe fracture can be supplemented by pathological mobility and the presence of crepitus.
Treatment with medications
Inflammation of a callus on the toe requires a qualified approach from a medical specialist. The doctor will conduct a physical examination and prescribe medications, ointments and topical creams that will help reduce the inflammatory process.
At this stage, there is no talk of removing callus through cryodestruction or laser techniques. The main goal of conservative therapy is to reduce inflammation and prevent intoxication of the body.
The treatment process may include the following tablets:
- If the leg hurts severely and the patient cannot step on the limb, then the use of painkillers is recommended. Most often, drugs based on ketorolac are prescribed. You can take a tablet of Analgin, Spazmalgon;
- Anti-inflammatory drugs in tablets - Movalis, Ibuprofen (gives an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect). The advisability of using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is determined on an individual basis, depending on the area of the lesion and the degree of the inflammatory process.
To reduce friction from shoes, it is recommended to create a barrier of adhesive tape and cotton wool. You can also use a specialized hydrocolloid patch, which is designed to speed up the recovery of damaged tissue.
Surgitron device: principle of operation and areas of application of the radioknife
For your information, hydrocolloid patches not only reduce the load on the affected area, but also absorb exudate that is released from the callus.
The most effective ointments that help reduce inflammation and speed up the healing of damaged tissues:
- Vishnevsky ointment. The composition of the medicine includes tar, xeroform, castor oil. It is not recommended to use if there is a history of impaired liver function. Organic intolerance to the active ingredients is a contraindication. In the latter case, the use leads to the development of local side effects - redness, irritation of the skin, which increases inflammation and pain.
- Levomekol has an effective antimicrobial effect and helps combat inflammation of any localization. It is not recommended to use if dermatological problems are observed in the affected area - psoriasis, eczema, fungal infection. The ointment is used in the form of compresses. A small amount is applied to a cotton pad, applied to the problem area, and fixed with an adhesive plaster. Apply twice a day, the course of therapy is determined individually.
Methods for quickly relieving inflammation include drugs such as Chlorhexidine, Miramistin, brilliant green (used if there is no weeping due to inflammation). These medications are used at the initial stage of the pathological process; in advanced cases they will not help.
If the described medications do not produce results, the callus begins to become even more inflamed and painful, then antibacterial therapy will be required for 10 days to relieve inflammation.
Fractured toe: types
A toe fracture can be an open fracture, where soft tissue damage occurs and bone fragments may protrude from the wound. In this situation, there is a direct threat of secondary infection. The patient urgently needs antiseptic treatment. For open fractures of the toes, treatment should not be delayed.
With closed fractures of the fingers, the integrity of the skin is not broken, and displacement of the fragments is usually not observed. But this type of fracture does not exclude the development of infectious and other complications. A closed fracture of the toe is often complicated by a purulent infection, especially when the nail bed is damaged and the nail plate peels off, which becomes an entry point for infectious pathogens.
When a displaced fracture occurs, comparison of bone fragments is required, which will give the finger an anatomically correct shape and restore the impaired functions of the limb.
Complications of toe injuries
Broken toes can lead to dangerous health consequences even when the injury is relatively mild. Without qualified medical care, skin wounds, cracks and bone fractures can provoke the development of the following complications:
- massive hematomas;
- ankylosis (joint immobility);
- deformation of finger joints;
- formation of bone callus;
- sepsis;
- secondary infections.
Damage to the soft and hard tissues of the extremities is especially dangerous for patients who suffer from metabolic disorders and chronic diseases, in particular diabetes. For such patients, even a minor injury can pose a hidden threat.
Causes of inflammation
The appearance of inflamed calluses can be due to the following reasons:
- wearing uncomfortable shoes.
If the shoes are too narrow or wide, the foot will feel great discomfort, as strong friction occurs, which leads to the formation of calluses and its inflammation.
Foot deformities and various foot diseases.
If you have flat feet, bursitis (arthritis) of the foot joints and other diseases, then as a result, due to improper distribution of the load on the legs, calluses with thickened skin and an inflammatory process may form.- Increased sweating of the feet.
Sweat softens the dead skin and a soft callus appears. Lymph can accumulate under a layer of thickened skin, which leads to inflammation of the water callus and its painful sensation. - Poor quality hosiery.
If you have a hole in your toe and you are wearing shoes, this can also cause the appearance of an inflamed callus and lead to its suppuration. - Excess weight.
A person who is overweight increases the load on the skin of the feet, resulting in not only corns, but also swelling of the feet, stagnation of blood and increased sweating of the feet, leading to bacterial contamination of callus areas.
How to treat bruises and broken toes
Patients with bruises and broken toes require first aid. It is very important to contact a traumatologist in a timely manner and undergo the prescribed examination. This will allow the doctor to select effective treatment for bruised toes as soon as possible and take all necessary measures to prevent complications.
Medical tactics for bruises and fractures of fingers are selected depending on the nature of the injury. With an open fracture, the wound can quickly become infected and fester, and the risk of developing tetanus cannot be ruled out. Experts practice the administration of anti-tetanus serum and antibacterial treatment of open wounds of the toes, especially if they are caused by contact with the ground and working tools.
Immobilization is indicated for almost all toe injuries. It allows you to relieve the sore foot and speed up the patient’s recovery process. Treatment of a fractured finger with bone displacement requires special professionalism when it is necessary to restore the anatomical shape of the phalanx. In this case, the correct fusion of bone tissue in the future depends on the professionalism of the traumatologist.
Even a minor finger injury is accompanied by pain and signs of an inflammatory reaction. To relieve pain, specialists prescribe analgesics in the form of local agents, tablets or injections. Drugs are selected taking into account the severity of the patient's condition.
Local agents with anti-inflammatory, regenerating and analgesic properties are recommended for long-term use. They alleviate the patient’s condition, have an antiseptic effect and promote rapid resorption of hematomas.
