News — plantar fascia

By Sharon Morris, MISCP BSc Physiotherapy, MSc Applied Biomechanics, 18th April 202  This article aims to summarize the recent publication of updated clinical practice guidelines for the management of plantar fasciitis. The update was carried out by the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and published in the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy in November 2023. The guidelines are particularly useful in supporting us as clinicians as we endeavour to use peer reviewed literature to enhance our clinical decision-making. Incorporating a Grading System This paper uses a grading system for the recommendation of different interventions based on the strength...

For a long time, the plantar fascia (aponeurosis) has been given a leading role as ‘the’ soft tissue for maintaining the foot’s profile in gait and for stiffening the foot during the stance phase through the windlass mechanism (1; 2). More recently researchers have taken a harder look a the plantar intrinsics to see how significant their role is in foot function (3). Our intent is this short article is to answer the question; ‘is intrinsic foot muscle strength important?’ Foot rehabilitation is an integral part of foot orthosis design and provision, both for the intrinsic and extrinsic foot muscles...