Yes swelling in the foot and redness does not mean gout alone. Gout is one of the cause. We have to try to rule out the cause one by one, if it is an infection, or is it stress fracture, or is it a gout. By and large when the patient comes with a history of no injury or no signs of infection, we take it as gout. Almost all swellings of the foot involving these things of no injury, no infection, then we take it as gout. For investigation, we may need an x-ray and the x-ray, may show uric acid crystal deposition. Sometimes it may not, but most of the times, you may see. You may need blood investigations, you may find uric acid increase. When these are the findings, we need to treat that gout and there are medications needed for gout and if required we may have to immobilize with a slab depending upon the severity of the pain and ice cold application.
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