Treatment and Management of Corns

Question: Write an essay on foot health diploma smne course? Answer: The 'corn' or 'clavus' is characterized by excessive growth of stratum cornea due to keratinization of the skin in general and foot region in particular. The corn occurs in a size range of 1 mm to 2 cm as convex surfaced provisions with smooth texture due the pressure exerted on small area (Gibbs and Boxer, 1982). The major cause of occurrence is the mechanical trauma distress to the skin as a result of epidermal hyperplasia. The pressure/friction exerted between bones and ill-fitting footwear could be the common cause for the abnormal growth of stratum cornea in the process of development of hyperkeratosis and in corn. The factors contributes for formation of 'corn' includes bony prominences and type of shoes (tight and irregularities) (Freeman, 2002). According to the reports (Right Diagnostics, 2015), the prevalence rate is one in 40 or 2.5% of population was suffering from corns. Therefore there is a requirement to pay attention towards treatment and management of corns. The foll owing section address the treatment modalities and management of corn. A symptomatic relief can be achieved by decreasing the amount of hyperkeratosis. The tissue can be removed with the help of chisel blade (Sacchidanand et al., 2012) to provide a symptomatic relief. In addition, a pad may be used to sustain the relief. The use of drug products containing salicylic acid like substances should be avoided as they damage the surrounding tissues (Singh et al., 1996) especially in patients who are taking immunosuppressant. The treatment and management utilizing pads can mitigate the signs by suppressing the magnitude of mechanical distress. The 'corns' with relatively harder can be managed using cushioning substances such as foam type pad or silicone sleeves. The pain associated with corns due to body weight or contacts with surroundings can be minimized using adhesive felt. Corns with mechanical wound/tumor can be circumvented using an appropriate shoe. The patients are recommended to avoid wearing of high-heeled shoes that are made of hard material in gen eral and upper portion of shoe (Richards, 1991). The patients with 'hammertoe deformities' are advised to wear shoe with an extra depth to suppress the pain associated with hard corns. In case of failure in controlling the corns, finally surgery would be alternative mode of controlling the mechanical stress. Surgical correction reestablishes the alignment of the toe in deformities associated with hammertoe, claw toe or mallet toe. The hard and soft inter digital corns on firth toe can be controlled by surgical operation at the condoyle. However the treatment of certain corns pertaining to metatarsal heads relatively yield unpredictable results due to inherent osteotomies in terms of migration of the callous to adjacent bone surfaces (Pontious et al., 1998) References GIBBS, RC. BOXER, MC. (1982) Abnormal biomechanics of feet and the cause of hyperkeratosis. J Am Acad Dermatol 6. p. 1061-9. FREEMAN, DB (2002) Corns and calluses resulting from mechanical hyperkeratosis. Am Fam Physician. 65(11). p. 2277-80 SACCHIDANAND, S., MALLIKARJUNA, M., PUROHIT, V SUJAYA, SN. (2012). Surgical Enucleation of Corn: A Novel Technique.Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery,5(1). p. 5253 SINGH, D., BENTLEY, G TREVINO, SG (1996) Callosities, corns, and calluses.British Medical Journal. 312(7043) p. 1403-1406. RICHARDS, RN (1991) Calluses, corns, and shoes. Semin Dermatol 10. p. 112-4 PONTIOUS, J., LANE, GD., MORITZ, JC MARTIN, W (1998) Lesser metatarsal V-osteotomy for chronic intractable plantar keratosis. Retrospective analysis of 40 procedures. J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 88. p. 323-31 Right Diagnostics (13-Aug-2015) Prevalence and incidence statistics for Corns Available from https://www.rightdiagnosis.com/c/corns/stats.htm#medic