Neuropathy

Neuropathy is a term for disorders affecting your nerves. Because your feet and ankles contain peripheral nerves (ones not directly connected to your central nervous system), conditions affecting your feet are known as peripheral neuropathy.

Peripheral neuropathy is a symptom of numerous health problems, including:

• Autoimmune disorders
• Diabetes
• Hereditary disorders (e.g., Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease)
• Tumors (cancerous and benign)
• Vitamin B deficiency
• Connective tissue disorders
• Hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid)
• Bone marrow diseases
• Kidney disease
• Liver disease

Certain infections can cause neuropathy, including shingles, AIDS, Lyme disease, hepatitis C, and Epstein-Barr. Sometimes neuropathy has no identifiable cause.

Of all the potential causes of neuropathy in the feet, diabetes is by far the most common.

Neuropathy can cause various symptoms, depending on the nerves involved. In the feet and ankles, neuropathy symptoms are likely to relate to nerves that send information about sensations like pain, heat, and cold to your brain.

For this reason, the most common symptoms of neuropathy in the feet are:

• Numbness
• Prickling
• Tingling
• Throbbing heat
• Freezing cold
• Burning
• Sharp or stabbing pain

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy, a complication of diabetes, can cause all these sensations. However, the most worrying is numbness. If you can’t feel your feet, you may be unaware of an injury, leaving it vulnerable to infection. Diabetes also causes poor circulation, so it’s more difficult for your body to heal the wound.

These untreated wounds frequently lead to diabetic ulcers, open sores that develop on the feet and ankles. If these wounds become infected, the resulting tissue death or gangrene could ultimately lead to amputation of the affected foot.

To treat your neuropathy successfully, the team at Innovation Medical Group works with your primary care provider or specialist to ensure the optimal management of any underlying conditions like diabetes.

You can also help yourself by following your doctor’s advice on diet, exercise, weight loss, and other measures to improve your health, like quitting smoking and alcohol.

Any additional treatment you need for your neuropathy varies according to the cause of your condition and its severity but could include:

• Physical therapy
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
• Anti-seizure medications
• Lidocaine patches
• Tricyclic antidepressants
• Capsaicin cream
• Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)

If your diabetic peripheral neuropathy has led to ulcers developing, Innovation Medical Group specializes in treating these painful wounds. 

They use advanced technologies like the MolecuLight i:X® Wound Imaging Device to identify any infection and the latest wound care techniques to encourage the ulcer to heal.