COVID Toes May Be More Rampant Than Realized

COVID toes is the term used for a skin condition that has been popping up across the country and believed to be a symptom of the coronavirus. Today Dr. Joel Segalman, Dr. Stephen Lazaroff, and Dr. Brittany Ciaramello at Performance Foot & Ankle Specialists, LLC in New Haven County, and Fairfield County are sharing more information regarding this skin condition.

Informally referred to as “COVID toes," this skin condition causes blue, red, or purple staining of the toes, and doctors continue to see more and more cases. Additional testing will be required to confirm what is causing the condition accurately, but it seems to be too much of a coincidence not to be a sign of the coronavirus.

Doctors who have been studying these cases report that this condition is appearing in COVID-19 patients who don’t have any other symptoms. And most cases appear in patients who are in their teens and 20s.

COVID toes typically occur early on in the disease, and those who experience this symptom should get tested. A minority of the patients with this symptom have tested for COVID-19, and a lot of them have been negative, but there still appears to be a relationship.

Many patients have experienced some rather mild viral symptoms in the week prior, and it might be a symptom that develops during the healing stage when the patient is no longer contagious.

There seem to be two possible causes for this symptom - an inflammatory response that is more concentrated on a patient’s toes and foot, or it could be the clotting of blood vessels, but no one knows for sure.

One positive aspect of this skin condition is that in some cases, it can disappear in just a week to 10 days. However, in others, it progressed to respiratory symptoms.

If you think you might have COVID toes – or are having any other problems with your feet, Dr. Joel Segalman, Dr. Stephen Lazaroff, and Dr. Brittany Ciaramello at Performance Foot & Ankle Specialists, LLC in New Haven County and Fairfield County help guide you in the right direction.

We’re in this together, so if you need us, call our Waterbury office at (203) 755-0489 or our Newtown location at (203) 270-6724.

Stay healthy and in good spirits, and help others whenever you can