Last week, a doctor confirmed that Pau Gasol tore his plantar fascia and will be out for 6-8 weeks from playing with the Lakers. Apparently it is also unknown if surgery will be required. As a podiatrist, this is of course interesting to me. I see plantar fascia problems several times a day. What confuses me is the issue of surgery as I have never seen a torn fascia repaired. Usually, the opposite is true as I have seen chronic inflamed fascia "released" surgically. In fact, I often perform this procedure myself.
Anyone can suffer from problems with plantar fascia but usually a tear or rupture on a traumatic level is much less common. The plantar fascia is a band of tissue (or fascia) on the bottom (or plantar) surface of the foot. It attaches at the bottom of the heel and extends out towards the toes widening before attaching in the ball of the foot.
We commonly see inflammation of the fascia or plantar fasciitis. This is when the fascia tears on a very small scale repeatedly. This can be caused by wearing the wrong shoes for two long, going barefoot for to long, or sometimes, but not as common, from trauma (as in Pau Gasol's case). It is important that if you experience chronic or severe heel pain you are seen by a podiatrist. We will work to 1) reduce the inflammation and 2) try to prevent the fascia from becoming inflamed again.
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