This is a term used to describe general pain in the ball of the foot. It is usually caused by an  uneven weight distribution with patients reporting a feeling of walking on marbles or stones. Certain shapes of foot predispose to this, in particular those with relatively long 2nd and 3rd metatarsals. Patients with a high arch foot (pes cavus) load their metatarsals more. Treatment may be thicker padded insoles or offloading the painful area with a felt or silicone metatarsal pad.

Occasionally conservative measures such as stretching the posterior chord or orthotics fail in which case a small corrictive proceedure of the efffected bone can help. This is called an osteotomy where under a general anaethtic the bone is cut and often secuered in shortened and elevated postion with a small screw.