Surgical treatment is only initiated if there is severe pain, as the available operations can be difficult. Otherwise, high arches may be handled with care and proper treatment.

Suggested conservative management of patients with painful pes cavus typically involves strategies to reduce and redistribute plantar pressure loading with the use of foot orthoses and specialised cushioned footwear. Other non-surgical rehabilitation approaches include stretching and strengthening of tight and weak muscles, debridement of plantar callosities, osseous mobilization, massage, chiropractic manipulation of the foot and ankle, and strategies to improve balance. There are also numerous surgical approaches described in the literature that are aimed at correcting the deformity and rebalancing the foot. Surgical procedures fall into three main groups:

1. soft-tissue procedures (e.g. plantar fascia release, Achilles tendon lengthening, tendon transfer);

2. osteotomy (e.g. metatarsal, midfoot or calcaneal);

3. bone-stabilising procedures (e.g. triple arthrodesis).

Treatment is usually with some combination of the Ponseti or French methods. The Ponseti method includes the following: casting together with manipulation, cutting the Achilles tendon, and bracing. The Ponseti method has been found to be effective in correcting the problem in those under the age of two. The French method involves realignment and tapping of the foot is often effective but requires a lot of effort by caregivers. Another technique known as Kite does not appear as good. In about 20% of cases further surgery is required.

The French method for treatment of clubfoot is a conservative method of treatment of a newborn which requires daily physical therapy for the first two months. The goal of this treatment is to avoid future need of surgery, but the success rate varies and after release surgery may still be necessary. The treatment includes daily manipulations of the feet along with stretching of the feet, followed by taping in order to maintain the range of motion gains achieved at the end of each session. The French method differs from the Ponseti method in that the taping techniques allow some motion in the feet. Another focus is to strengthen the peroneal muscles which is thought to contribute towards long-term correction. After the two month mark physical therapy sessions can be weaned down to three times per week instead of daily until the child reaches six months old. Parents are required to continue on with home exercises and night splinting even after the program has achieved proper foot correction in order to maintain the correction. The Ponseti method is generally preferred.

Most flexible flat feet are asymptomatic, and do not cause pain. In these cases, there is usually no cause for concern. Flat feet were formerly a physical-health reason for service-rejection in many militaries. However, three military studies on asymptomatic adults (see section below), suggest that persons with asymptomatic flat feet are at least as tolerant of foot stress as the population with various grades of arch. Asymptomatic flat feet are no longer a service disqualification in the U.S. military.

In a study performed to analyze the activation of the tibialis posterior muscle in adults with pes planus, it was noted that the tendon of this muscle may be dysfunctional and lead to disabling weightbearing symptoms associated with acquired flat foot deformity. The results of the study indicated that while barefoot, subjects activated additional lower-leg muscles to complete an exercise that resisted foot adduction. However, when the same subjects performed the exercise while wearing arch supporting orthotics and shoes, the tibialis posterior was selectively activated. Such discoveries suggest that the use of shoes with properly fitting, arch-supporting orthics will enhance selective activation of the tibialis posterior muscle thus, acting as an adequate treatment for the undesirable symptoms of pes planus.

Rigid flatfoot, a condition where the sole of the foot is rigidly flat even when a person is not standing, often indicates a significant problem in the bones of the affected feet, and can cause pain in about a quarter of those affected. Other flatfoot-related conditions, such as various forms of tarsal coalition (two or more bones in the midfoot or hindfoot abnormally joined) or an accessory navicular (extra bone on the inner side of the foot) should be treated promptly, usually by the very early teen years, before a child's bone structure firms up permanently as a young adult. Both tarsal coalition and an accessory navicular can be confirmed by X-ray. Rheumatoid arthritis can destroy tendons in the foot (or both feet) which can cause this condition, and untreated can result in deformity and early onset of osteoarthritis of the joint. Such a condition can cause severe pain and considerably reduced ability to walk, even with orthoses. Ankle fusion is usually recommended.

Treatment of flat feet may also be appropriate if there is associated foot or lower leg pain, or if the condition affects the knees or the lower back. Treatment may include using orthoses such as an arch support, foot gymnastics or other exercises as recommended by a podiatrist/orthotist or physical therapist. In cases of severe flat feet, orthoses should be used through a gradual process to lessen discomfort. Over several weeks, slightly more material is added to the orthosis to raise the arch. These small changes allow the foot structure to adjust gradually, as well as giving the patient time to acclimatise to the sensation of wearing orthoses. Once prescribed, orthoses are generally worn for the rest of the patient's life. In some cases, surgery can provide lasting relief, and even create an arch where none existed before; it should be considered a last resort, as it is usually very time consuming and costly.

The first line treatment should be reduction of movements for 6 to 12 weeks. Wooden-soled shoes or a cast should be given for this purpose. In rare cases in which stress fracture occurs with a cavus foot, plantar fascia release may be appropriate.

In some cases, foot diseases and painful conditions can be treated. Synovium hydrates the cartilage in the heal and can bring pain relief quickly. Synovium gel looks as well as strongly smells like urine, straying some consumers away. However this only occurs after expiration. Blood thinners can also work however are deemed as bad relievers by medical practitioners due to the fact that they can contribute to headaches and in some cases increase foot pain afterwards.

Treatment of medial knee injuries varies depending on location and classification of the injuries. The consensus of many studies is that isolated grade I, II, and III injuries are usually well suited to non-operative treatment protocols. Acute grade III injuries with concomitant multiligament injuries or knee dislocation involving medial side injury should undergo surgical treatment. Chronic grade III injuries should also undergo surgical treatment if the patient is experiencing rotational instability or side-to-side instability.

Non-septic prepatellar bursitis can be treated with rest, the application of ice to the affected area, and anti-inflammatory drugs, particularly ibuprofen. Elevation of the affected leg during rest may also expedite the recovery process. Severe cases may require fine-needle aspiration of the bursa fluid, sometimes coupled with cortisone injections. However, some studies have shown that steroid injections may not be an effective treatment option. After the bursitis has been treated, rehabilitative exercise may help improve joint mechanics and reduce chronic pain.

Opinions vary as to which treatment options are most effective for septic prepatellar bursitis. McAfee and Smith recommend a course of oral antibiotics, usually oxacillin sodium or cephradine, and assert that surgery and drainage are unnecessary. Wilson-MacDonald argues that oral antibiotics are "inadequate", and recommends intravenous antibiotics for managing the infection. Some authors suggest surgical irrigation of the bursa by means of a subcutaneous tube. Others suggest that bursectomy may be necessary for intractable cases; the operation is an outpatient procedure that can be performed in less than half an hour.

Conservative treatment of isolated medial knee injuries (grades I-III) begins with controlling swelling and protecting the knee. Swelling is managed well with rest, ice, elevation, and compression wraps. Protection can be performed using a hinged brace that stabilizes against varus and valgus stress but allows full flexion and extension. The brace should be worn for the first four to six weeks of rehabilitation, especially during physical exercise to prevent trauma to the healing ligament. Stationary bike exercises are the recommended exercise for active range of motion and should be increased as tolerated by the patient. Side-to-side movements of the knee should be avoided. The patient is allowed to bear weight as tolerated and should perform quadriceps strengthening exercises along with range of motion exercises. The typical return-to-play time frame for most athletes with a grade III medial knee injury undergoing a rehabilitation program is 5 to 7 weeks.

Throughout history flat feet were seen as a sign of low class and poor health, and high arches were seen as high class and full of vigor. Research has shown that the two distinctions are far from the case. The effects of flat feet fall under two categories, which are asymptotic and symptomatic. Individuals with rigid flat feet tend to exhibit symptoms such as foot and knee tendinitis, and are recommended to consider surgical options when managing symptoms. Individuals with flexible flat generally exhibit asymptotic effects in response to their flat feet.

In fact, according to AAP news and journal gateway, being flexibly flat-footed does not impede athletic performance.

It is generally assumed by running professionals (primarily including some physical trainers, podiatrists, and shoe manufacturers) that a person with flat feet tends to overpronate in the running form. However, some also assert that persons with flat feet may have an underpronating if they are not a neutral gait. With standard running shoes, these professionals claim, a person who overpronates in his or her running form may be more susceptible to shin splints, back problems, and tendonitis in the knee. Running in shoes with extra medial support or using special shoe inserts, orthoses, may help correct one's running form by reducing pronation and may reduce risk of injury.

Often the most important goal for patients with CMT is to maintain movement, muscle strength, and flexibility. Therefore, an interprofessional team approach with occupational therapy, physical therapy, orthotist, podiatrist and or orthopedic surgeon is recommended. PT typically focuses on muscle strength training, muscle, and ligament stretching while OT can provide education on energy conservation strategies and moderate aerobic exercise in activities of daily living. Physical therapy should be involved in designing an exercise program that fits a person's personal strengths and flexibility. Bracing can also be used to correct problems caused by CMT. An orthotist may address gait abnormalities by prescribing the use of ankle-foot orthoses (AFOs). These orthoses help control foot drop and ankle instability and often provide a better sense of balance for patients. Appropriate footwear is also very important for people with CMT, but they often have difficulty finding well-fitting shoes because of their high arched feet and hammer toes. Due to the lack of good sensory reception in the feet, CMT patients may also need to see a podiatrist for help in trimming nails or removing calluses that develop on the pads of the feet. A final decision a patient can make is to have surgery. Using a podiatrist or an orthopedic surgeon, patients can choose to stabilize their feet or correct progressive problems. These procedures include straightening and pinning the toes, lowering the arch, and sometimes, fusing the ankle joint to provide stability. CMT patients must take extra care to avoid falling because fractures take longer to heal in someone with an underlying disease process. Additionally, the resulting inactivity may cause the CMT to worsen.

The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association classifies the chemotherapy drug vincristine as a "definite high risk" and states that "vincristine has been proven hazardous and should be avoided by all CMT patients, including those with no symptoms."

There are also several corrective surgical procedures that can be done to improve physical condition.

Physical therapy is the predominant treatment of symptoms. Orthopedic shoes and foot surgery can be used to manage foot problems.

Depending on the level of pain and damage suffered by a patient, a physician will recommend a treatment regimen that will relieve symptoms. Some of the most common recommendations include avoiding activities that make the pain worse, ice the knee for 20 to 30 minutes throughout the day to reduce inflammation, use over the counter anti-inflammatory medications, paracetamol (acetaminophen) and physical therapy.

Topical creams and patches can also be used for pain treatment and they have been proven to reduce pain by 33 to 57%.

Exercises can help increase range of motion and flexibility as well as help strengthen the muscles in the leg. Physical therapy and exercise are often effective in reducing pain and improving function. Working with a physical therapist to find exercises that promote function without risking further injury is effective for most patients. Many of the exercises used can be performed while sitting in a chair or standing in place. They are performed so that additional stress or weight is not placed on the knee joint. Water exercises are highly recommended along with the use of elastic bands.

Supportive devices like knee braces can be used. In most cases, the arthritis is centered on a single side of the knee, so braces are effective in providing stability to one side. Two different forms of braces are available. A support brace provides the aid the entire knee requires, where an up-loader brace shifts the pressure away from the specific part of the knee that is experiencing the pain. Shoes or inserts that are considered to be energy absorbing are found useful for some patients as well as walking devices like a cane. Shoe insoles that are fitted to correct flat feet have provided relief to many patients.

The use of oral steroids and anti-inflammatory medicines help to reduce the amount of inflammation and pain felt in the knee. If over the counter medicines like ibuprofen or naproxen are not strong enough, prescription strength medicines are used. If oral medicine and physical therapy don't help your knee enough, doctors may consider giving patients injections with pain medicine. Hyaluronic acid is present in the knee, but injections of it can be used to protect the joint when the cartilage becomes thinner and can't do it alone. These injections can provide more pain relief than oral medications lasting from six months to a year.

Surgery is the final option but may be required to relieve symptoms. Arthroscopy is performed through tiny cuts where damaged parts of the knee can be removed. Osteotomy is performed to reshape the bones in the knee and is only performed if one side of the knee is damaged. Arthroplasty is a replacement surgery where an artificial joint is used.

Low level laser therapy can be considered for relief of pain and stiffness associated with osteoarthritis.

Pes cavus may be hereditary or acquired, and the underlying cause may be neurological, orthopedic, or neuromuscular. Pes cavus is sometimes—but not always—connected through Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy Type 1 (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease) and Friedreich's Ataxia; many other cases of pes cavus are natural.

The cause and deforming mechanism underlying pes cavus is complex and not well understood. Factors considered influential in the development of pes cavus include muscle weakness and imbalance in neuromuscular disease, residual effects of congenital clubfoot, post-traumatic bone malformation, contracture of the plantar fascia, and shortening of the Achilles tendon.

Among the cases of neuromuscular pes cavus, 50% have been attributed to Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which is the most common type of inherited neuropathy with an incidence of 1 per 2,500 persons affected. Also known as Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy (HMSN), it is genetically heterogeneous and usually presents in the first decade of life with delayed motor milestones, distal muscle weakness, clumsiness, and frequent falls. By adulthood, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease can cause painful foot deformities such as pes cavus. Although it is a relatively common disorder affecting the foot and ankle, little is known about the distribution of muscle weakness, severity of orthopaedic deformities, or types of foot pain experienced. There are no cures or effective courses of treatment to halt the progression of any form of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

The development of the cavus foot structure seen in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease has been previously linked to an imbalance of muscle strength around the foot and ankle. A hypothetical model proposed by various authors describes a relationship whereby weak evertor muscles are overpowered by stronger invertor muscles, causing an adducted forefoot and inverted rearfoot. Similarly, weak dorsiflexors are overpowered by stronger plantarflexors, causing a plantarflexed first metatarsal and anterior pes cavus.

Pes cavus is also evident in people without neuropathy or other neurological deficit. In the absence of neurological, congenital, or traumatic causes of pes cavus, the remaining cases are classified as being ‘idiopathic’ because their aetiology is unknown.

Atherosclerotic restriction to the arterial supply in peripheral artery occlusive disease may result in painful arterial ulcers of the ankle and foot, or give rise of gangrene of the toes and foot. Immobility of a person may result in prolonged pressure applied to the heels causing pressure sores.

Impaired venous drainage from the foot in varicose veins may sequentially result in brown haemosiderin discolouration to the ankle and foot, varicose stasis dermatitis and finally venous ulcers.

Other disorders of the foot include osteoarthritis of the joints, peripheral neuropathy and plantar warts.

It is possible to prevent the onset of prepatellar bursitis, or prevent the symptoms from worsening, by avoiding trauma to the knee or frequent kneeling. Protective knee pads can also help prevent prepatellar bursitis for those whose professions require frequent kneeling and for athletes who play contact sports, such as American football, basketball, and wrestling.

It is important to differentiate between infected and non-infected bursitis. People may have surrounding cellulitis and systemic symptoms include a fever. The bursa should be aspirated to rule out an infectious process.

Bursae that are not infected can be treated symptomatically with rest, ice, elevation, physiotherapy, anti-inflammatory drugs and pain medication. Since bursitis is caused by increased friction from the adjacent structures, a compression bandage is not suggested because compression would create more friction around the joint. Chronic bursitis can be amenable to bursectomy and aspiration.

Bursae that are infected require further investigation and antibiotic therapy. Steroid therapy may also be considered. In cases when all conservative treatment fails, surgical therapy may be necessary. In a bursectomy the bursa is cut out either endoscopically or with open surgery. The bursa grows back in place after a couple of weeks but without any inflammatory component.

A foot deformity is a disorder of the foot that can be congenital or acquired.

Such deformities can include hammer toe, club foot, flat feet, pes cavus, etc.

There is no pharmacological treatment for Roussy–Lévy syndrome.

Treatment options focus on palliative care and corrective therapy. Patients tend to benefit greatly from physical therapy (especially water therapy as it does not place excessive pressure on the muscles), while moderate activity is often recommended to maintain movement, flexibility, muscle strength and endurance.

Patients with foot deformities may benefit from corrective surgery, which, however, is usually a last resort. Most such surgeries include straightening and pinning the toes, lowering the arch, and sometimes, fusing the ankle joint to provide stability. Recovering from these surgeries is oftentimes long and difficult. Proper foot care including custom-made shoes and leg braces may minimize discomfort and increase function.

While no medicines are reported to treat the disorder, patients are advised to avoid certain medications as they may aggravate the symptoms.

Pes anserine bursitis is an inflammatory condition of the medial (inner) knee at the anserine bursa, a sub muscular bursa, just below the pes anserinus.

The pes anserinus is the insertion of the conjoined tendons sartorius, gracilis, and semitendinosus into the anteromedial proximal tibia. Theoretically, bursitis results from stress to this area (e.g. stress may result when an obese individual with anatomic deformity from arthritis ascends or descends stairs). An occurrence of pes anserine bursitis commonly is characterized by pain, especially when climbing stairs, tenderness, and local swelling.

Nicotinamide administration on patients was associated with a sustained improvement in frataxin concentrations towards those seen in asymptomatic carriers during 8 weeks of daily dosing. The daily oral administration of 3.8 g nicotinamide resulted in a 1.5-times increase, whereas 7.5 g resulted in a doubling of frataxin protein concentration.

Idebenone, an antioxidant, was recently removed from the Canadian market in 2013 due to lack of effectiveness. A Cochrane review on antioxidants and other pharmacological treatment of patients with Friedreich ataxia concluded that there is limited but not persuasive evidence of efficacy.

There are many types of dressings used to treat diabetic foot ulcers such as absorptive fillers, hydrogel dressings, and hydrocolloids. There is no good evidence that one type of dressing is better than another for diabetic foot ulcers. In selecting dressings for chronic non healing wounds it is recommended that the cost of the product be taken into account.

Hydrogel dressings may have shown a slight advantage over standard dressings, but the quality of the research is of concern. Dressings and creams containing silver have not been properly studied nor have alginate dressings. Biologically active bandages that combine hydrogel and hydrocolloid traits are available, however more research needs to be conducted as to the efficacy of this option over others.

The length of antibiotic courses depend on the severity of the infection and whether bone infection is involved but can range from 1 week to 6 weeks or more. Current recommendations are that antibiotics are only used when there is evidence of infection and continued until there is evidence that the infection has cleared, instead of evidence of ulcer healing. Choice of antibiotic depends on common local bacterial strains known to infect ulcers. Microbiological swabs are believed to be of limited value in identifying causative strain. Microbiological investigation is of value in cases of osteomyelitis. Most ulcer infections involve multiple microorganisms.