Manufacture of individual insoles for pregnant women

The European Clinic of Sports Traumatology and Orthopaedics (ECSTO) not only provides its patients with high-tech surgical care but it also offers such an important service as the manufacture of individual orthopedic insoles, made taking into account the anatomical features of each. Pregnant women should pay special attention to this problem.

"If you look at a person's foot in a calm state, we will see a vault, but as soon as a person steps on his foot, the foot immediately spreads out," says Nidal Bouali, Candidate of Medical Sciences, ECSTO trauma surgeon. -This is a normal process of cushioning (dampening body vibrations and softening tremors when walking), but in some people the feet spread out more than necessary, which not only disrupts its cushioning functions, but also disrupts the normal functioning of the musculoskeletal system. During pregnancy, a woman begins to gain weight, the load on her legs increases greatly and, accordingly, the foot begins to spread out more than usual when walking.

Increasing a person's weight by one kilogram increases the load on the foot by four kilograms. If a person's weight increases by five kilograms, the risk of osteoarthritis increases by 40 percent. During pregnancy, in addition to weight gain, hormonal changes occur in the female body, and the ligamentous apparatus of the joints, including those located in the feet, becomes excessively elastic. We are often contacted by patients who have flat feet after childbirth or begin to progress rapidly.

For a long time, a woman may not even suspect that she has flat feet. The first symptoms often appear after childbirth and signal the progression of the disease, its decompensation, which is why it is important to start wearing insoles as early as possible, from the first months of pregnancy. If this is not done, then after childbirth, local problems such as painful bumps on the legs, deformity of the fingers, filling of the foot on one side, and the appearance of calluses often appear. Corns and corns are a sign that you need to start wearing shoes with orthopedic insoles, rather than disguising the problem in the pedicure room. In the future, pain in the legs, heaviness, swelling, and cramps are added to these problems. In advanced cases, foot deformity begins to develop, which can only be eliminated by surgery. Moreover, not only the feet can deform: the pelvis and spine may be skewed, which, in turn, will inevitably be accompanied by pain in the knees, hip joint, lumbar and even cervical spine.

Insoles for expectant mothers, as well as for other patients, are made for any shoe, and easily fit into any shoe – outdoor, office, sports. After giving birth, women need to continue using insoles, as the excessive elasticity of the ligamentous apparatus persists for a long time. Moreover, as a rule, patients who have tried to walk with insoles never give up on them anymore. Even in shoes with a heel 3-4 centimeters high, it is highly advisable to put insoles, this allows you to distribute body weight more correctly when standing and walking.

ECSTO insoles are made of genuine leather: it is dense, elastic, holds its shape well, but it is very thin and light. As a rule, one pair of insoles lasts for about a year, later they begin to wear out and lose their elasticity, so they should be replaced with new ones.

The so-called orthopedic shoes, which can be bought in many stores, are also useful, but they cannot completely replace insoles, because they are made for an average foot and do not take into account the individual anatomical features of a particular person's feet. If the foot is very different from the model used for orthopedic shoes, then this will not only cause discomfort, but may also deform the foot.

In ECSTO, the process of making insoles takes about 15-20 minutes. During this time, the doctor makes the necessary measurements and models the insoles, taking into account the features of the relief of the soles of each individual patient. A woman only needs to take off her shoes and stand on a podoscope, a measuring device with a mirrored bottom, after which the doctor will analyze the condition of her feet, take measurements and make insoles in a few minutes. It is very important that at ECSTO, unlike other institutions where similar services are provided, the modeling of individual insoles is carried out by an operating surgeon who is well acquainted with all the features of the structure and pathology of the foot.