Author(s)

Christopher Jump, Michael Rice, Daniel Gheorghiu, Jordi Sanchez-Ballester

Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, St. Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust, Liverpool, UK.
Liverpool Medical School, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.

Background: Morton’s neuroma is the enlargement of an interdigital nerve most commonly located between the third and fourth metatarsals. Greek foot is a normal variant where the first metatarsal is shorter than the second metatarsal. To our knowledge, there is currently no reported association between Greek foot and Morton’s neuroma in the literature. Methods: Retrospective study of 184 patients. Two separate cohorts were recruited. Cohort A comprised of 100 randomly selected asymptomatic patients. Cohort B comprised of 84 patients with a history of foot pain and histologically confirmed Morton’s neuroma. Foot shape was determined by using a self-assessment tool and plain radiographs. Statistical analyses were performed using the Chi-square test on the association between Greek foot and Morton’s neuroma. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Our study shows a statistically significant association between Greek foot and Morton’s neuroma with a prevalence of Greek foot in Cohort A of 20% and in Cohort B of 63%. (p = 2.6 × 10^﹣9). Conclusions: This study has shown a possible association between the presence of a Greek foot and the presence of Morton’s neuroma. Although our study design has limitations and does not allow full statistical analysis, we do believe that the shown association between Greek foot and Morton’s neuroma can help clinicians and other health care providers in establishing the diagnosis of Morton’s neuroma in patients with a painful foot.

Morton’s Neuroma, Greek Foot, Egyptian Foot, Foot Pain

Jump, C. , Rice, M. , Gheorghiu, D. and Sanchez-Ballester, J. (2014) Does Greek Foot Predispose to Morton’s Neuroma?. Open Journal of Orthopedics, 4, 176-182. doi: 10.4236/ojo.2014.47029.