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©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Foot and ankle history and clinical examination: A guide to everyday practice
Sulaiman Alazzawi, Trauma and Orthopaedic Department, Royal London Hospital, London E1 1BB, United Kingdom
Mohamed Sukeik, Trauma and Orthopaedic Department, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Brockley Hill, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 4LP, United Kingdom
Daniel King, Krishna Vemulapalli, Trauma and Orthopaedic Department, Queens Hospital, Romford, Essex RM7 0AG, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Alazzawi S and Sukeik M performed the majority of the writing, prepared the figures and tables; King D performed literature review and provided the input in writing the paper; Vemulapalli K designed the outline, coordinated the writing and edited the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sulaiman Alazzawi, Specialty Registrar, Trauma and Orthopaedic Department, Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, London E1 1BB, United Kingdom. salazzawi2@gmail.com
Telephone: +44-20-73777000
Received: September 18, 2016
Peer-review started: September 20, 2016
First decision: October 21, 2016
Revised: November 7, 2016
Accepted: November 27, 2016
Article in press: November 29, 2016
Published online: January 18, 2017
Processing time: 113 Days and 20.8 Hours
Peer-review started: September 20, 2016
First decision: October 21, 2016
Revised: November 7, 2016
Accepted: November 27, 2016
Article in press: November 29, 2016
Published online: January 18, 2017
Processing time: 113 Days and 20.8 Hours
Abstract
This review summarises the key points in taking a history and performing a comprehensive clinical examination for patients with foot and/or ankle problems. It is a useful guide for residents who are preparing for their specialty exams, as well as family doctors and any other doctor who has to deal with foot and ankle problems in adults.
Keywords: Foot; Ankle; History; Examination and clinical assessment
Core tip: Patients present with foot and ankle problems can have either single or multiple pathologies. Obtaining adequate history and performing good clinical examination is a key in reaching the accurate diagnosis. Adjuvant tools like radiological images can be used to confirm what has been clinically suspected.