What is a foot cyst?
A foot cyst is exactly the same as a ganglion cyst, these are most commonly found on the wrist and hand but they do form on the foot as well. The most common area they can form on the foot is on the top of it. They are one of the most common benign soft-tissue masses that can form on our bodies, they are made up of a gelatinlike fluid which comes from a joint or a tendon and forms a lump under the skin.
Cysts can be very annoying, although they are harmless, they can get smaller and bigger and some even disappear for a while, only to return once more. They vary in size from a pea right up to a golf ball and vanish and appear at will.
The causes of a foot cyst.
The exact cause of a foot cyst is still something that eludes scientific researchers, however, they are commonly thought to arise after an injury or a trauma. This could be one event, say kicking something or loads of little events (micro-traumas) perhaps running.
Signs and symptoms
If you are noticing any of the following, then it is likely that you have a ganglion cyst on your foot:
- A lump, this is, most commonly, the only symptom or sign.
- A dull ache or pain, this can indicate that your foot cyst is pressing on a joint or tendon.
- Burning or tingling, this occurs when the cyst is touching a nerve.
- Finding it hard to wear shoes, you may begin to get an irritation between your shoe and your cyst.
Treatments for foot cysts.
In most cases, surgery is not needed to get rid of cysts and most of the time, non-surgical methods will be tried to get rid of it first. There are a few different non-surgical treatments available for foot cysts, including;
Modified shoes – wearing different shoes that do not rub on your cyst might be advised. It can also help if you place a pad in your shoe, this reduces the pressure on the cyst.
Monitoring, without treatment – if you go to the doctor with a cyst that isn’t causing you any pain or discomfort, the doctor may suggest keeping an eye on it for awhile and if anything changes with it or you start to feel discomfort then go back and see them.
Injection and aspiration – this is the act of draining the fluid out of the cyst on your foot, more than one session of this might be needed in order to stop it returning and after each session, you will have a steroid injection into the mass to encourage it to go away. Although this is successful in some cases, in others, the cyst will return.
Surgery is only needed if all of the other treatments for foot cysts continue to not work. Your doctor will recommend you have it removed surgically which is very safe and most of the time nowadays the surgeon will use keyhole surgery for a quicker recovery time.
Thank you for reading this article, we hope it answered any questions you had about foot cysts.