Overview

Name: Stress Fracture

Description:

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Notes

A stress fracture is an overuse injury. It occurs when muscles become fatigued and are unable to absorb added shock. Eventually, the fatigued muscle transfers the overload of stress to the bone causing a tiny crack called a stress fracture.

Stress fractures represent micro fractures of bone secondary to repetitive or increased stress on the bone. Typically in the foot they occur in the metatarsal neck area, but can occur in any foot bone or in the tibia or fibula of a runner. Typically there is pain and swelling present as well as point tenderness at the stress fracture site. The difficulty in diagnosing stress fractures is that they do not always show on x-ray. They sometimes become visible after three to six weeks as the fracture begins to heal. Bone scans and/or MRI may be used for diagnosis in difficult cases. Running on a metatarsal stress fracture can lead to an actual complete fracture through the metatarsal neck area. Non-treatment of the stress fracture can prolong healing. Treatment is generally immobilization and can involve a fracture shoe or cast or cast boot depending the situation. There can be a pre-stress fracture condition when the periosteum (the covering of the bone) becomes inflamed prior to the actual fracture. At this point usually rest will allow the inflammation to subside, avoiding the stress fracture.

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