Metatarsal stress fractures.

We evaluated metatarsal lengths from roentgenograms in a group with metatarsal stress fractures and compared them with those of a control group having no foot symptoms to determine if a short first metatarsal could be implicated as a cause for metatarsal stress fractures. By statistical analysis we showed that the lengths of the first and second metatarsals in the group with stress fractures did not differ from those in a randomly selected control group. In addition, we determined that to be "short," the first metatarsal must be less than 73% of the length of the second metatarsal, and to be "long," the first metatarsal must be more than 94% of the length of the second metatarsal.