Clinical examination of Morton syndrome
The master symptom of Morton’s neuroma is the sometimes very significant pain. It typically sits between the 3rd and 4th toes (75%), more rarely between the 2nd and 3rd toes.
This pain, with type of electric bolt, appears at the shoe’s wear, especially with a narrow end, at the end of the step rolling, but also during prolonged walking, or in irregular terrain. Morton’s syndrome also occurs in a long race.
Morton’s syndrome can also be manifested by disorders or loss of sensitivity, cramps or burns on the forefoot, or tingling.
More rarely, Morton’s neuroma can cause pain in driving, a feeling of a foreign body “in the foot” or a feeling of walking “on a fakir carpet”.
The removing of shoes, often imperative, relieves the patient, as well as the immediate mobilization of the toes, which has a very good diagnostic value in case of Morton’s neuroma. Localized foot massage can also relieve pain.
The clinical examination will make the diagnosis in typical forms by causing pain during various exercises of putting under pressure metatarsal heads, or intermetatarsal space. It is usual to find a loss of sensitivity, or an anesthesia, between the corresponding toes.