Plantar Fibroma [Symptoms, Causes, Shoes & Best Home Treatment]
Do you have plantar fascial fibromatosis (AKA Plantar Fibroma Pain)? We go over the 100% best diagnosis, shoes, insoles & HOME TREATMENT PLAN!
Table of Contents
Plantar fibroma massage & treatment video:
Plantar fibroma causes:
Heel Pain Causes: Picture & Photo Gallery
Look:
- One of the top causes of heel pain is plantar fasciitis. This is damage to a ligament that holds your heel to your toes.
- Another root cause of heel pain has flat feet.
- There are also photos of heel spurs that can occur to the bottom of your heel (plantar fascia insertion) and the back of your heel (Achilles tendon insertion).
- Baxter’s nerve entrapment can also happen at the bottom of the heel.
- An underlying cause is an overpronated flatfoot or an over a supinated high arched foot.
- A plantar fibroma is a thick nodule that can occur within your plantar fascia ligament and contribute to plantar fasciitis.
- This can lead to the formation of a heel stress fracture( AKA calcaneus stress fracture.)
Please click on the gallery for a guided tour through heel pain conditions!
What Is Plantar Fascial Fibromatosis:
- A plantar fibroma (AKA plantar fascial fibromatosis) is relatively non-dangerous, but it can become excruciating.
- A plantar fibroma is a development of what feels like a “pebble” of connective tissue.
- It could even feel like a much larger thickening of the cords at the bottom of your foot.
- These nodules are extremely slow-growing fibroblasts & myofibroblasts. It could take months to years before they even begin to irritate you and eventually develop disorganized collagen.
- They eventually lead to more and more irritation.
- This can cause your toes to bend and stiffen because you adapt your biomechanics and walk improperly.
Plantar Fibroma Symptoms:
- A plantar fibroma nodule can occur on the inside of the foot, near the arch’s highest point.
- This is called the central and the medial band of the plantar fascia.
- The lump itself is usually pretty painless.
- It can be a small plantar fibroma nodule or a large nodule.
- Only the pressure of the floor creates pain.
- Only 1/4 of people show it in both feet.
- It can be stiffer and more swollen, causing morning pain.
We like to think of a plantar fibroma, almost like pair with scar tissue throughout the plantar fascia. The more you keep walking on it, the more swollen and agitated it gets. It fills up with more fluid and causes more pain.
Plantar Fibroma Causes & Risk Factors:
- Family history.
- Associated lumps in hands as well.
- Associated with Ledderhose disease: Nodules in hand.
- Associated with Peyronie’s disease: Nodules on penis shaft.
- Diabetes Mellitus.
- Trauma.
- Increased body weight or obesity.
- Poor shoes.
- Barefoot home walking.
- Working and walking on hard floors.
- Age >30 years old.
- Associated arthritis & foot pain.
- Other biomechanical problems in the back, knee, or hip.
Plantar Fibroma Running:
- The plantar fibroma can be very painful for runners.
- We usually see this develop because the foot is flattening out work over pronated during the running gait.
- This usually means that there is an underlying tightness or biomechanical abnormality.
- We find success with good supportive shoes and a soft orthotic with a cut-out for the nodule.
- It may be in the runner’s benefit to take pressure off their feet through crosstraining until they can aggressively massage out and stretch the plantar fibroma goes away.
- It can be challenging to accommodate heavy running workloads with the plantar fibroma.
- In our opinion is best to consider this as a serious injury like a stress fracture and crosstraining until it starts to improve.
Diagnosis:
- A good option for a plantar fibroma doctor is called a podiatrist.
- Express her foot and ankle specialists that are well trained in taking care of plantar fibroma pain.
- The initial evaluation consists of a history and physical to assess any family history or underlying factors that would likely make it likely that plantar fibroma is the cause.
- Other causes are very likely, including plantar fasciitis, flatfoot pain, high arched foot pain, heel bone pain, Baxter’s nerve entrapment, and calcaneal stress fractures.
- An x-ray is a good option to rule out any signs of heel spur or other pathology.
- An in-office ultrasound may be utilized to evaluate the size of the plantar fibroma.
- If surgery or a biopsy or plan, an MRI may be to your benefit.
- There is a chance that this could be cancer. This is something called a sarcoma.
- The only way to reasonably rule this out is to, unfortunately, have to do an invasive biopsy.
Plantar Fibroma Treatment:
- Treatment of the plantar fibroma depends on whether your goal is to make the pain go away or focus on making it disappear.
- The unfortunate news is that usually invasive means are the only way to make it go away permanently.
1) If the Nodule is Small:
- Treat this like plantar fasciitis to see if the symptoms get better. We have developed a 4 stage guide that will take you through the complete treatment of bottom of the foot pain.
- Use this only if the nodule is small!
Non-invasive options:
- Anti-inflammatory medication.
- Accommodative plantar fibroma orthotics & insoles.
- Great plantar fibroma shoes.
- Offloading padding.
- Plantar fibroma-specific physical therapy.
- Plantar fibroma massage techniques like deep tissue massage and Graston technique.
- Corticosteroid shots can relieve the pain.
- Shockwave therapy.
2) If the Nodule is Large:
These techniques should be reserved for the end-stage of this disease. The consequences of surgery must be balanced; while the fibroma is gone, worse problems may develop.
- A plantar fibroma Corticosteroid shot can relieve the pain.
- Surgical resection of the plantar fibroma.
- This is a very rough option, as part of your plantar fascia needs to be removed to eliminate it permanently.
- This may eventually impact your biomechanics and lead to a flat foot.
- Radiation is a treatment option.
- Verapamil topical cream.
- Various steroid injections are an option. Repeat injections have been studied as an option.
Best Plantar Fibroma Products:
- There are usually two phases to treating plantar fasciitis pain.
- The two phases of treatment include controlling the acute inflammation and correcting the biomechanics, which led to the problem in the first place.
- If the tendons and ligaments are inflamed, they are almost frozen in place and cannot function properly.
- Once the inflammation is decreased, we need to correct the biomechanical causes to ensure that they can never become overworked and inflamed again!
- This doesn’t matter whether it’s plantar fasciitis, plantar fibroma, the sore bottom of the foot, or even Achilles tendon pain. Treatment is all roughly very similar.
Plantar Fibroma Cure & Natural Treatment:
Massage & Ice Products:
- Ice is an excellent option that can be safe for almost everyone.
- There is some debate about whether icing is worth doing, but this can help limit the need for medications and keep your options open for chronic pain.
- This works great for your arch, less for the ball of the foot.
- Manual massage on the plantar fibroma is a natural treatment that can also be considered physical therapy for your plantar fibroma.
- This works to break up the plantar fascia nodule. This works well for small plantar fibroma nodules.
- The more muscle and ligament tissue there is, the better ice will work there.






Menthol Based Gels:
- Biofreeze is one of our favorites.
- These gels have been studied to work 2x as long as ice.
- This works great for the ball of the foot.
- This can be very effective for pain relief, but this will not make the actual nodule disappear.








Massage Sticks:
- These can work great for loosening your muscles.
- This allows less tightness and pressure onto the plantar fascia and heel.
- This is very effective for the arch, the gastrocnemius, calf muscle, and the hamstring and thigh muscles.
- This also works very well for the gluteus muscles if you are having butt cheek or hip pain.
- The massage stick can break up lumps in your plantar fascia and small plantar fibroma nodules.






Remove the Plantar Fascia Stress:
- The key is to prevent future pain stress and trauma to the plantar fibroma nodule.
- This means keeping you active while keeping stress off of your plantar fascia tendon. This will prevent future re-injury and the development of plantar fasciitis.
- If you can get rid of the pain and swelling, this will let you start walking normally.
- If you can walk normally, the vast majority of your pain should gradually start to go away.
- The best way to ensure that your plantar fascia, foot, and ankle ligaments are not overworked is to support them.
- The best way to support them is to use great orthotics and great shoes.
- Some people may also need to rely on supportive ankle braces and other supportive modalities.
Best Shoes for Plantar Fibroma Pain:
- Getting a great supportive pair of plantar fibroma shoes will ensure that there is pressure removed from the heel and plantar fascia region.
- This is especially important if you have plantar fasciitis, heel spur pain, or Achilles tendonitis as well.
- Consider plantar fibroma shoes combined with a good supportive orthotic for best pain relief!
- The following link will show you what our favorites are.
Best Plantar Fibroma Insoles:
- These are our recommended orthotics for plantar fibroma pain.
- Custom orthotics can work very well, but they should not be the first line of treatment due to the cost.
- There are different types of different shoes.
- Women’s shoes usually need a less bulky orthotic but allow for less correction.
- A full-length orthotic requires a running shoe, boot, or comfortable walking/dress shoe.
- We recommend doing everything you can to get a good supportive shoe that can fit a full-length orthotic.
- A further home remedy tip for plantar fibroma pain is cutting out a hole where the nodule uses scissors or a knife. Be careful and start with a very low-cost orthotic.
Best Full-Length Plantar Fibroma Orthotics:
- These will only work in wider shoes or a good supportive running shoe.
- This will not work in sandals, flats, or most women’s dress shoes.








Best Dress Shoe Plantar Fibroma Orthotics:
- These are a great choice for dress orthotics.






Best 3/4 Length Plantar Fibroma Orthotics:
- These are great options for women’s dress shoes and thinner shoes.
- These are not the most supportive pair of orthotics.

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Get A Great Dynamic Stretch:
- It is possible to stretch on your own, but these products can also really help!
- This will take pressure off of the ball of your foot.
- This is a form of plantar fibromatosis physical therapy that breaks up the scar tissue.
- We personally prefer this method of stretching.








Get A Great Static Stretch:
- These devices are great for stretching while you are resting.
- This is an excellent plantar fibroma physical therapy routine that you can do at home.
- This will also help take pressure off of the ball of your foot.
- This works great for plantar fasciitis.
- The night splint can be used while watching TV or at night time.



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Best Heel Compression Brace:
- A good compression brace can stabilize your foot from turning outward.
- This prevents your foot from pronation.
- The pronated foot will turn your foot outward, in your foot will rub on the outside of the shoe.
- This has solved their pain for many of her patients and is very comfortable to wear inside your shoe.
- This solves both pain and outward pronation for a relatively low cost.


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Best Heel Stability Brace:
- The stability brace goes a little bit further than the compression brace to stop your foot from turning out.
- This takes the pressure off of your heel and plantar fascia.
- At the same time, this is a little bit bulkier and does not affect every shoe.
- We find people are a little bit happier trying the compression brace before the stability brace.
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
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Severe Plantar Fibroma Pain:
- If you think you might have a broken heel, a calcaneal stress fracture, or something of similar severity, these products might help!
- Always remember to see a foot and ankle specialist like a podiatrist if you have plantar fasciitis or more severe pain!
Plantar Fascia Tear, Broken Heel Bone, Achilles Tendon Tear:
- If you have a traumatic injury such as a torn plantar fascia ligament, calcaneus stress fracture, heel fracture, or insertional Achilles tendon injury: consider protecting your foot!
- The best way to do this is, of course, to see your podiatrist and get evaluated with an x-ray, ultrasound, and potentially even an MRI or CT scan.
- If you cannot do so, it may benefit you to be in a cast, fractured boot, or even keep the weight off of it with a rolling knee scooter or other protective devices.
- We as podiatrists frequently take patients off work for a very long period of time when they suffer a traumatic injury. Unfortunately, there is no other way around us in labor jobs.
- If you have a sit-down job, there are ways to get people back to work quicker, but this can be impossible otherwise.
Heel Injury Boot Treatment:
- There are pros and cons to using a boot to treat your heel injury. The Pros are that your injured heel will hopefully have a chance to heal gradually! If you are immobilized too long, the cons are that you will gradually become stiff and overworked to your other leg.
- Our favorite fracture boots and their supplies:
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



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

Offloading and Scooter treatment:
- These are favorite knee scooters and walking devices.
- If your plantar fibroma pain is severe, offloading can be very effective until the pain calms down.







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Best Shoes for a Plantar Fibroma:
Click this link to go over the best shoes for a plantar fibroma!
Best walking shoes for plantar fibroma:
These are our favorite walking shoes for a plantar fibroma:
Best men’s walking shoes for a plantar fibroma.
Best women’s shoes for a plantar fibroma.
The Best Sandals for a Plantar Fibroma:
We go over the best podiatrist recommended sandals for a plantar fibroma!