Diagnosis and management of heel and plantar foot pain.

Volume 95 No. 4 April 2012 introduCtion Heel pain is a common complaint encountered by primary care physicians. Misdiagnosis is not uncommon because of the intricate anatomy of the heel, where many structures lie in close proximity to one another. While there are traumatic (high-energy), infectious, oncologic, vascular and systemic causes of heel pain, this article will focus on the most common ones: repetitive microtrauma and compression of structures within confined spaces. Pathologic causes can be broadly categorized as degenerative, neurologic, or traumatic.