Guest Blog: Management of Plantar Fasciitis Pain with Kinesiology Tape- A Case Report

Hello everyone, myself Ashish Paul, Physiotherapist. In this post, I would like to share my success story, which is about one of my patients, who is significantly better with kinesiology taping, in just one session. The patient is a 57 years old lady, a teacher by occupation who complained of pain in both her feet.  

Upon assessment I found the condition to be plantar fasciitis, with the hallmark symptom of maximum pain in the first few steps in the morning present. The patient marked VAS pain rating as 8. She said that the pain increased in the morning and gets adapted while daily activities. It again tends to increase in the evening. The present episode was going on for 10 days. Because of this pain, the patient was unable to walk properly and couldn’t stand for a prolonged time.

Plantar fasciitis is caused by a number of factors, and management needs multiple sessions. However, in the first session, it was important for me to focus on analgesia in order to enable her to perform her daily activities with minimal discomfort. This also helps to gain the patient’s confidence and results in better compliance.

For immediate pain relief, I decided to tape the patient’s foot. Taping for plantar fasciitis has a lot of evidence base. A review by Podolsky & Kalichman (Ref 1) studied a number of articles on taping for plantar fasciitis and concluded taping is beneficial in the short term. The RCT by Ordahan et al showed (Ref 2) that kinesiology tape is as effective as shockwave therapy in improving pain, function, and quality of life.

Although the review mentions most no evidence exists in favor of rigid taping of the foot, I chose to apply kinesiology tape in this patient as it is more comfortable for the patient.

I applied the kinesiology taping techniques learned from Dr. Subhanjan Das. Sir., in a workshop in Bangalore, June 2022. The aim of my taping was to support the plantar fascia. I anchored one end at the 1st and 2nd phalanges through two windows cut into the tape, while the other end was anchored at the calcaneus. The KT stretch was given a stretch of about 50%.

Overnight application of this taping resulted in a significant reduction of the pain. The patient felt better and relieved the next day. When re-accessed, I found that the VAS of pain is 3.

Also, she was able to walk properly without any pain, but standing for a prolonged time was still somewhat difficult, yet it was better than before.

I really appreciate Sir’s workshop, because my patient got relieved very fast and the pain decreased significantly in a single session. With the short-term goal of analgesia achieved, I am working to restore the normal biomechanics of her foot to achieve a long-term solution. As of now, the patient is pain free and happy, Thus, a happy ending of this story.

Dr Ashish Paul, PT

+91 8087804010

Iyer Orthopedic & Physiotherapy Centre

Solapur, Maharashtra 413001

References

1.Podolsky, Roman and Kalichman, Leonid. ‘Taping for Plantar Fasciitis’. 1 Jan. 2015 : 1 – 6.

2. Ordahan B, Türkoğlu G, Karahan AY, Akkurt HE. Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy Versus Kinesiology Taping in the Management of Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Arch Rheumatol. 2017 Apr 17;32(3):227-233. doi: 10.5606/ArchRheumatol.2017.6059. PMID: 30375530; PMCID: PMC6190955.