Plantar heel pain part 1 - Assessment & diagnosis with Henrik Riel

Do your patients have Gonorrheal heel? Despite it being one of the original terms for plantar heel pain in the 1800’s, I’ve discovered patients aren’t particularly fond of receiving a diagnosis of “Gonorrheal heel”, and for some reason seem to be much more comfortable with it being called “Plantar heel pain” or plantar fasciopathy.

Placing terminology aside for a second, close to 10% of the population suffer with plantar heel pain (PHP) at some point, so you’re going to treat a fair few of these over your career. How will you assess and differentiate PHP from other types of heel pain, so you can give your patient the treatment they need?

In Part 1 of this three part online course with Danish Physiotherapist and researcher Henrik Riel, you will discover:

• How to identify & diagnose PHP
• Common imaging findings eg heel spurs, and whether they’re important or relevant
• How imaging helps your diagnosis
• Questions you need to ask in your history
• Tests and palpation you can perform to diagnose PHP
• How to differentiate PHP from other conditions including Baxter’s neuropathy, nerve impingement, red flags, rheumatological involvement
• Risk factors for developing PHP
• Factors affecting your patients prognosis
• How to answer your patients when they ask you “How long will it take to get better?”

In Part 2 you will discover exercise options & progressions you can use with your patients.

Part 3 will help you compare the types of exercises you can use, and explore the latest evidence on additional treatment options such as extracorporeal shockwave therapy (EWST), manual therapy, surgery, and similarities between the Loch Ness monster and corticosteroid injections.