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What Causes Swelling In The Feet And Little Toe?
My husband woke up with swollen left foot, mostly little toe. No injuries, bangs or fractures, no extra physical activity nor any new or uncomfortable shoes, etc. No elevated temperature. Antihistamine didn t help. Bloodwork is normal even the test for some kind of urilyic(/) acid that typically accompanies gout was within normal range. Foot is incredibly painful, hurts to even walk. At the ER they said it presented like gout so they put him on tapering dose of predniosone. However, bloodwork results came back today and everything was normal. Any ideas?
posted on
Sat, 13 Aug 2016
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Wed, 10 Jul 2019
Answered on
Fri, 12 Jul 2019
Last reviewed on
Hi,
It is quite hard to give advice for a third party, but I will try my best. Well, thyroid problems are not known to directly cause leg and ankle swelling. However, a thyroid problem may affect certain chambers of the heart, even valves of the heart, and eventually cause leg and ankle swelling (peripheral oedemas), due to raised pressures in the peripheral circulation system, which promotes fluids to go out into the interstitial area. Since this is a well-known complication of thyroid dysfunction, first of all, I would recommend a carefully examined echo cardiogram, to assess heart chambers and valves, by means of size, movement and function. This is an exam that may elicit so many things and, at the same time, exclude a lot of culprits to this situation. Since this is an online consultation, I can only provide my opinion. Even though the echo cardiogram is a strong recommendation at this time, there are the symptoms you provided that also need to be addressed. Therefore, my recommendation is that loop diuretics, such as furosemide (Lasix), should be applied intravenously at the beginning to help excessive fluid to be "thrown out" of the organism. My opinion is that, even though this therapy may be successful in lowering the oedemas, the culprit of this condition is a must to be revealed.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Ivan R. Rommstein, General Surgeon
It is quite hard to give advice for a third party, but I will try my best. Well, thyroid problems are not known to directly cause leg and ankle swelling. However, a thyroid problem may affect certain chambers of the heart, even valves of the heart, and eventually cause leg and ankle swelling (peripheral oedemas), due to raised pressures in the peripheral circulation system, which promotes fluids to go out into the interstitial area. Since this is a well-known complication of thyroid dysfunction, first of all, I would recommend a carefully examined echo cardiogram, to assess heart chambers and valves, by means of size, movement and function. This is an exam that may elicit so many things and, at the same time, exclude a lot of culprits to this situation. Since this is an online consultation, I can only provide my opinion. Even though the echo cardiogram is a strong recommendation at this time, there are the symptoms you provided that also need to be addressed. Therefore, my recommendation is that loop diuretics, such as furosemide (Lasix), should be applied intravenously at the beginning to help excessive fluid to be "thrown out" of the organism. My opinion is that, even though this therapy may be successful in lowering the oedemas, the culprit of this condition is a must to be revealed.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Ivan R. Rommstein, General Surgeon
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