How To Treat Friction Blisters

Hello I'm Charles Goldman, a qualified Chiropodist/Podiatrist. I run “The Foot Pad” chiropody and physical therapy clinic in Holborn, Central London. Today I'm going to talk to you about various foot problems and their treatment.

The most common place to get blisters are around the heel, the ankle, underneath where friction would occur. These are normally caused by footwear rubbing on the foot. Very often in sportsmen, marathon runners, footballers, basketball players, that sort of thing.

The way to treat it ideally is to drain the blister, either lance it with something sterile, if you're doing it yourself using a sterile needle, something that's been heated over a flame and then put a sterile dressing over to keep it clean to prevent infection. The pain on the blister is caused from the pressure that collects under the skin. This is normally serum which is the clear liquid of the blood without the cells in it.

Once you've drained this off, then the pressures reduced then the pain is reduced. One of the treatments you can do for it is to use products like “second skin” which is basically a little gel pad. You can buy this anywhere, put that over the blister and it's very soothing.

You can leave that on with a bit of tape and that would stop the friction as well. If it persists and you constantly get blisters you have to ascertain what causes it, whether there is a malfunction in the foot due to abnormal torsions and turnings in the foot. When you've determined what caused it whether it's inadequate footwear which you obviously have to change then you can treat it.

Initially you want to prevent the pain and discomfort so you use the product that I've mentioned. If you are worried or have a secondary infection then seek professional advice, a chiropodist can ascertain whether you've got an infection and treat it accordingly but always keep it clean and sterile and don't use a dirty instrument to lance it, like a dirty needle or an old Stanley knife, this can be quite dangerous and you want to avoid anything like that. And this is how we recommend you treat blisters on the foot.