High arched foot walking characteristics

In daily life, many people have seen patients with high arches. Some people have congenital foot cavus. It is a deformity that is related to genetic factors. Once high arches occur, it must be treated in time. If not treated in time, a series of complications may occur. There are many types of gaits for patients with high arches, and plantar flexion, inversion of the foot and other conditions often occur. The usual treatment can include some stretching and surgical treatment.

Simple cavus foot is mainly characterized by a fixed plantar flexion deformity of the forefoot, with the first and fifth metatarsals bearing weight evenly. The medial and lateral longitudinal arches of the foot are uniformly increased, and the heel remains in a neutral position or has slight eversion.

In this type of invaricose cavus, only the first and second metatarsal bones on the medial row of the forefoot are plantar flexed, which increases the medial longitudinal arch of the foot. The external longitudinal arch remains normal. When not bearing weight, the fifth metatarsal can be easily raised to the neutral position, but the first metatarsal cannot be passively dorsiflexed to the neutral position due to its fixed plantar flexion and has an internal rotation deformity of 20 to 30°. Initially, the hind feet are mostly normal. When standing and walking, the pressure on the first metatarsal head increases significantly. In order to reduce the pressure on the first metatarsal head, patients often bear weight in an inverted position, resulting in a fixed inverted deformity of the hindfoot in the late stage. Most patients have claw toes, the first metatarsal head protruding toward the sole of the foot, thickening of the soft tissue in the weight-bearing area of ​​the sole, corpus callosum formation and pain.

Heel-type cavus foot is common in poliomyelitis and meningomyelocele. It is mainly caused by paralysis of the triceps surae, and its characteristics are that the calcaneus is in dorsiflexion and the forefoot is fixed in plantar flexion.

Plantar flexion cavus foot often occurs after surgical treatment of congenital clubfoot. In addition to the fixed plantar flexion deformity of the forefoot, this type of disease also has obvious plantar flexion deformity in the hindfoot and ankle joints. The clinical manifestations of various types of cavus foot are not consistent, but all have fixed plantar flexion deformity in the forefoot. The toes are mostly normal in the early stage, but as the disease progresses, the toes gradually retract, the interphalangeal joints become plantar flexed, the metatarsophalangeal joints become excessively dorsiflexed, and the toes become claw-like deformities. In severe cases, the toes cannot touch the ground. Due to the dorsiflexion deformity of the metatarsophalangeal joint, the metatarsophalangeal joint subluxation is caused, and the base of the proximal phalanx is pressed on the dorsal side of the metatarsal head, which will aggravate the plantar flexion deformity of the metatarsal bone, leading to thickening of the skin at the weight-bearing site, formation of corpus callosum, and even formation of ulcers.