As per a recent study, the chronic plantar heel pain can be effectively managed using proximal medial gastrocnemius recession with a stretching program. Plantar heel pain is one of the primary cause of heel pain, tenderness and soreness which can spread into the medial arch. This condition of feet leads to considerable disability and diminished health-related quality of life. Gastrocnemius recession is an excellent operative procedure to treat plantar heel pain, but the prospective clinical and biomechanical outcome data were limited.

Thus the study was aimed to assess the biomechanical and clinical outcomes of gastrocnemius recession and stretching resembled with a stretching exercise protocol among 40 patients suffering from plantar heel pain for more than one year.

The patients randomly categorised to proximal medial gastrocnemius recession along with stretching exercises or a home stretching exercise program only. American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hindfoot scores at one year, and visual analogue scale (VAS) along with Short Form-36 (SF-36) scores were considered as the primary and secondary outcome. Achilles function and ankle dorsiflexion were taken as the biomechanical outcomes determined by plantar pressure (via pedobarography) and a test battery with six independent tests. Data were collected two times; at baseline and follow-up. The operative group showed from 59.5 to 88.0 and the non-operative group from 52.5 to 65.5 AOFAS scores.

Moreover, the operative group exhibited better SF-36, AOFAS and VAS scores as compared to the nonoperative group at one-year follow-up (P < .05). Achilles function presented no between-group difference and Ankle dorsiflexion raised from 6 to 10.5 degree. The operative group also exhibited increased average forefoot plantar pressure from 536 KPa to 642 KPa at follow-up ( P < .001). These outcomes very well explain that Proximal medial gastrocnemius recession with stretching exercises is the better way to manage plantar heel pain.