[Heel pain and calcaneal spurs].

The authors of this paper have reviewed 137 X-ray films of the involved feet and followed up 30 patients all of them suffering from heel pain treated in the authors' hospital during 1980-1985, in order to find out the relationship between the length, shape and the direction of the spurs with the heel pain. We have found: (1) There are no clear relationship between heel pain and the length, shape and the direction of the calcaneal spur. (2) The plantar soft tissue of the painful foot was thickened, indicating the heel pain was due to inflammation in the plantar soft tissue. (3) Heel pain is related to the patient's age and sex. (4) The spurs still exist and grow even bigger after the syndrome disappears.