Hmm, toe fractures don’t get much respect around here. I had a displaced, intra-articular great toe fracture and was told not to worry about it. It ended my running “career” because I essentially had to limp to compensate for the toe pain, which caused knee pain. I am disappointed to read here, of all places, that buddy taping is considered a standard of care for toe fractures. It has its place, but please understand that there are digital fractures that are better treated with open reduction/internal fixation.
I am attaching a link showing the type of fracture that I suffered, and how it could have been fixed. This is my first time trying to post a link, so forgive me if I did it wrong.
Open reduction? Seriously? You can’t just go to the surgery store and ask for one of those. The OP was evaluated by a physician and it was deemed non surgical.
Is taping it to the toe next to it all that bad? That’s what people always said to do when I was growing up, but now everyone says, “No, don’t do that!”.
I once fractured a few vertebrae, and was told that it didn’t need any special care (and indeed, it healed without incident.) Our bodies are designed to heal broken bones. Immobilization helps for bones that are subject to a lot of movement or a lot of stress, but toes are pretty likely to heal well on their own.
There is a fair amount of very good information about foot and ankle fractures on various websites- my favorite is currently Radiology Assistant out of the Netherlands. (I arrived at it roundabout via pelvic floor dysfunction discussion with International Society for Study of Women’s Sexual Health, or ISSWSH, but quickly found its extremity sections invaluable, especially the ankle ones)
