Usually simple wear and tear on a particular tendon or joint is the cause of a ganglion.
The most common soft tissue growth found in the body/foot is a ganglion cyst which is not cancerous.
Typically forming off a joint capsule or tendon sheath the growth is a gel-filled cyst.
If you have a cyst on the top of your toes just behind the toenail this is known as a mucinous cyst.
Although the exact causes are unknown, usually simple wear and tear on a particular tendon or joint is believed to be the cause of a ganglion. If you have a mucinous cyst it may be due to some degenerative joint disease (arthritis) in the last joint of the affected toe.
Usually not painful, but ganglion cysts can be irritated by shoe pressure against a nearby nerve.
Diagnosis of a ganglion (or mucinous cyst) is typically made by examination. Dr Kim will examine where the ganglion is located and you may require an ultrasound that is also done in the clinic.
Close monitoring: if ganglions are not causing pain or interfering with movement, it may be left alone. The cyst may simply disappear on its own or change in size.
Needle aspiration: one of the tests to diagnose ganglions involves drawing off the fluid with a fine needle. In many cases (around 50%) this treatment empties the cyst and no further treatment is needed.
The cyst is surgically removed.
When to consider surgery?
Surgery is advised if non-surgical treatment fails.
Ganglion Cyst Surgery
The excision surgery involves removal of the mass and a small amount of the tissue of origin. This can be performed safely under local anaesthetic. For those patients who do not like the thought of needles, the procedure can be performed as day surgery under general or twilight anaesthetic.
Although you are allowed to walk on your foot after surgery (in a post-operative shoe) it is best to completely rest your foot and elevation is encouraged in the first 1 – 2 weeks following surgery.
Bunions will not just go away on their own, but this does not mean that your lifestyle has to be affected.
There is a treatment that is minimally invasive and affordable so you no longer have to feel like your entire life is being controlled by flat feet.
Usually simple wear and tear on a particular tendon or joint is the cause of a ganglion.
