The New York Mets second baseman, Louis Castillo, could end up on the disabled list due to a foot injury. The injury is being reported as a bone bruise of the left foot. What is a bone bruise? Most people think a bone is either broken or not. In order to explain that I want you to think of a dimmer switch on a light. You see, a bone can be either broken or not, just like a light can either be on or off. That said, there are also the dimmer options. Using an MRI (a special medical device that takes images of the bones and soft tissues and feeds the results into a computer) a radiologist can add more options to the mix. Thinking of a spectrum, where one end is normal bone and the other is a broken bone, now we can add bone bruise (also called a stress reaction) and stress fracture.
Despite his desire to play, the treatment for a bone bruise is rest, stiffer shoes and time. If he continues to play on this foot he can end up with a stress fracture (the next phase on the dimmer switch) or ultimately a fracture of his bone. If he does fracture the bone he is looking at 6 weeks of healing time.
Committed to your health,
Dr. Craig Conti
Sarasota Foot Care Center
www.sarasotafootcarecenter.com
