When conservative treatments fail (rest, ice, orthotics, gait analysis, strausburg sock, stretching, soft tissue work, etc).
Has anyone here received a cortisone injection into their fascia?
Are there any risks involved? What was your outcome?
I had PF for nearly 2 years. It was during a time of very reduced activity (law school) when it hit. I tried nearly everything to no avail. I had the Cortisone injections and the pain went away immediately. Unfortunately for me it came back about 6 months later. Finally cured after sleeping in the big giant boots for several months and running through the pain.
That may not be helpful as I’m sure you’re more active than I was at the time but I remember waking up the next morning and being able to actually walk!
I’ve had a few over the years. Generally they help me ‘get over the hump’ so the conservative treatment that you note is more effective. Obviously you will feel great immediately afterwards, or at least I did, but you should approach a return to running conservatively.
Like everything, there are risks which can be easily googled. IIRC, fat pad degeneration was one that sticks in my head.
I would do it again if the PF came back and became unbearable. Me not running is more unbearable!
I’ve been fighting it this year. Saw a podiatrist for a couple months before getting a shot. For the first few days after the shot it hurt worse than before. It got better but weeks later the pain returned. I will say that the current pain is nothing near what it was. I’m nearly through it, or at least I feel so.
I think it’s worth a shot, no pun intended. I wouldn’t get into a habit but I don’t think it hurts to try. There are some zealots who will tell you will go to hell for using the shot. Do the research and make your own decision and go forward.
You have and unbalance of muscle strength and therefore tightness. Need to length your front hip and calf. And add more strength to your glutes and hamstrings. Fix the cause stop using bandiads.
When running stop placing your foot in front of your knee cap with toes landing. That takes drills and focus.
Good luck.
Find yourself a good acupuncturist that is trained in orthopedic, and sports medicine, like myself. Cortisone injection can help, but mostly is just a bandaid, we have many more modalities to facilitate healing than your normal doc. The other option is a physio- therapist that does dry needling.
PF takes time to heal. Keep stretching, avoid heel striking and it should slowly go away.
I didn’t get much relief from a cortisone shot. In fact, I think the doc nicked a nerve in my heel that set my recovery back even longer. It was well over a year from the injection before the pain in the side if my heel (site of injection) went away.
N=1, obviously.
Anthony in the "wack ~ I’ll help you with your grammar & you can help me with my muscle imbalances. Have we have a deal?
no injections. But I had a mild case this summer. Slept in the boot. But found rolling a trigger point ball under foot helped. And my ART guy did something to the top of my foot in 5 minutes. No kidding it was awesome. Problem gone in a few days.
Just had it done on 10/8/14. Worked great for me. I have plantar fascia issues and heal spurs in both feet. Pain in left foot was really bad, so I had it injected in the morning, and by late afternoon it was feeling better already. By the next day it was even better. A week later, I was given the OK to run (after having taken 3.5 weeks completely off from running). Ran 24 minutes on some trails at a slow to moderate effort. Felt awesome. Drove home, and got out of car and foot was already sore. Knew it would be terrible the next morning and wasn’t disappointed. Sore again; enough to alter my walking gait. But gradually improved. It’s now Friday a.m., and I’m hoping to get in another short run on Sunday as things are gradually improving again. That said, I should be picking up custom orthotics within a week to address the issue. At that time I’m going to make the Doctor outline a recovery program so that if I’m not ready by Date X, that I will schedule surgery to relieve the fascia. I don’t want this to drag on forever, and want to have surgery the last week of the year if it looks like that’s the only way I can get over this. Hope to avoid it, but I also don’t want it lingering in to next spring. Living with me when I cannot run is not pleasant for my wife and kids;) FWIW, my doc will only permit 2 cortisone injections in the fascia. Like any tendon and cortisone injections, I’d imagine the more you do it, the more likely it might rupter. Might take the second injection when I pick up my orthotics if I’m not improving. 2 steps forward, 1 step back is acceptable. 1 step forward, 2 steps back is not.
I have had many over the years. They all worked, so long as I stay off my feet for a couple days afterward to allow it to heal. Luckily my podiatrist is also a pretty competitive runner, and his opinion was that there was no real long term issues with having it done
If you’re in a pinch and have a big race coming up or something I’d say it’s worth it. But if you’re just going into the off season, I don’t know, I think I’d continue to try and solve the problem without a shot. I am sort of in the same boat right now, and planning on doing a lot more foot/calf strengthening to help eliminate the root of the problem
I’ve had cortisone shots twice for PF, both helped for about 6 weeks, then the pain came back. It flared up so badly in early Aug that I had to shut down running for 2 weeks, and I didn’t want another shot. I went through a few weeks of ART plus EPAT, and got it back under control. It’s not gone, but I’ve been running 40+ mpw training for IMFL with only limited pain. I plan on taking a month or so off after the race, to see if I can kick it for good.
You have and unbalance of muscle strength and therefore tightness. Need to length your front hip and calf. And add more strength to your glutes and hamstrings. Fix the cause stop using bandiads.
When running stop placing your foot in front of your knee cap with toes landing. That takes drills and focus.
Good luck.
this did it for me without the shot…
stopped running for two weeks then I came back slowly while making sure i was stretching/foam rolling hip/quads/hamstrings/calf.
I think you have plenty of anecdotes in this thread and I assume you are a physical therapist yourself with your screen name.
It is a great tool in the box for treating plantar fasciitis symptoms. It is useful at times, not in others and should be discussed with your treating physician. I have some runners coming in who ask for one and I decline and others who are scared to death about it yet do just fine. I’ve done probably close to 1,000 by now, mostly with the more typical acute infracalcaneal bursitis that is often misdiagnosed or going along with plantar fasciitis (that is treated with the more typical stretching, muscle imbalance targeting, etc.)
For those that keep regurgitating running/muscle imbalance issues (that I do agree with, but …) only about 25% of my patients with PF are athletes/runners. Coach potatoes, elderly, etc. also develop plantar fasciitis. I suppose all that sitting overworked their quads to overpower their hip flexors/weak glutes as well 
**Re: Plantar Fascia Cortisone Injection Results - NEW **In reply to] **Quote | Reply **
Same situation here. I got the shot and it helped a little, then the PF came back and I worked thru it with a TENS machine, massage, night splint and running. I got back to full mileage two months ago and had a run PR at Kona last week. Hurts a little now so I’m enjoying some needed hardcore recovery now. I’m not sure if the reoccurrence was due to the cortisone shot wearing off or due to increased mileage. No apologies about the backdoor Kona brag (3:19 run split) maybe the PF made me faster.
I was dealing with PF for a year and a half. During that time I really cut back on running especially on trails.
Then I got a cortisone shot and let it work for a few days. Wow all the pain was gone!!! This was over a year ago, and still no pain. I am mindful now that if I start feeling any discomfort coming on, I have to back off or buy a new pair of shoes.
When I got it, it only helped short term. Scraping and strengthening helped me long term. All better now.
http://www.running-physio.com/pf-new-research/
This really helped. I wish I read this article when I first got PF.
I had a similar issue that it was commonly though of as PF…but completely approached differently. For me, I live in Austin Texas. There is a Dr. in Houston Dr. Don Baxter that came up with what is not a common issue, but is very close to the pain of PF and he called Baxters. Which is also known as the “3rd branch lateral nerve damage”. It is basically nerve damage in the heel that is radiating the pain in the foot. I have a great Dr. (Ted Spears of Sports Performance International - Austin) that performed this surgery last April 2013 pretty much when I was just starting to train for the back half of the Season with IM Cozumel being the last race.
Was not able to run 1/2 mile before pain set in…so I trusted Dr. Spears. He was the understudy of Baxter…they are the only two that really know this procedure. I was on the bike post op 4 days later (stationary) back in the pool 2 weeks later and jog walking by end of May. I could cycle all I wanted once the scar healed…so that is what I did…I follow the instructions…I had a plan of a race on Fathers Day June…sprint. I did the race…wanted to run, but the Dr. suggested that I just swim/ bike…and stop…could have run…or jog walk…but he knew I would push it…didn’t have 100% flexibility in the heel yet.
While ramping training for what I thought was only going to be 1 race IM COZ…I then raced in September, then a half in October then IM Coz December…no issues and no pain. I would look them up. The shot is an option…but masking won’t stop it from tearing then you are out for a year+…Explore all options before you get the shot AND have surgery…
Haha thanks for the offer but my lack of grammar hurts you more then it hurts me. While your pf hurts you as well so no deal. But give me an email and we can set something up.