Cuboid syndrome or cuboid subluxation describes a condition that results from subtle injury to the calcaneocuboid joint and ligaments in the vicinity of the cuboid bone, one of seven tarsal bones of the human foot. This condition often manifests in the form of lateral (little toe side) foot pain and sometimes general foot weakness. Cuboid syndrome, which is relatively common but not well defined or recognized, is known by many other names, including lateral plantar neuritis, cuboid fault syndrome, peroneal cuboid syndrome, dropped cuboid, locked cuboid and subluxed cuboid. Signs and symptoms
A patient with cuboid syndrome usually seeks medical advice and attention complaining of pain, discomfort, or weakness along the lateral aspect of the foot between the fourth and fifth metatarsals and the calcaneocuboid joint. The pain may radiate throughout the foot. Tenderness may be elicited over the tendon of the peroneus longus muscle and an antalgic gait may be observed. The pain may be observed in a controlled environment by standing on the toes or rolling the arches of the foot, as these motions tend to exercise the foots calcaneocuboid joint and ligament, which are characteristically strained in a patient suffering from cuboid syndrome. Also, the pain may come on suddenly or it may develop gradually and persist over time. Sometimes the pain is intermittent, subsiding partially or completely for a period of time before returning again. Causes
A patient may develop Cuboid syndrome through either a single traumatic event (e.g., ankle sprain) or insidiously with repetitive strain over time.
Extensive burns, either thermal or radiological, can lead to unusually large keloids; these are especially common in firebombing casualties, and were a signature effect of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. True incidence and prevalence of keloid in United States is not known. Indeed, there has never been a population study to assess the epidemiology of this disorder. In his 2001 publication, Marneros stated that “reported incidence of keloids in the general population ranges from a high of 16% among the adults in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a low of 0.09% in England,” quoting from Blooms 1956 publication on heredity of keloids. Clinical observations show that the disorder is more common among sub-Saharan Africans, African Americans and Asians, with unreliable and very wide estimated prevalence rates ranging from 4.5 to 16%. History
Keloids were described by Egyptian surgeons around 1700 BC, recorded in the Smith papyrus, regarding surgical techniques. Baron Jean-Louis Alibert (1768–1837) identified the keloid as an entity in 1806. He called them cancroïde, later changing the name to chéloïde to avoid confusion with cancer. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek χηλή, chele, meaning "crab pincers", and the suffix -oid, meaning "like". The famous American Civil War-era photograph "Whipped Peter" depicts an escaped former slave with extensive keloid scarring as a result of numerous brutal beatings from his former overseer.