WASHINGTON — The patient was a healthy young woman who came into a Washington-area emergency room this year because of severe heel pain, which turned out to be a potentially serious injury known as “compartment syndrome.” The syndrome is typically caused by high-impact accidents, like something involving a motor vehicle.

The patient had not been in a car accident. The patient had been in Zumba.

“I have seen some interesting things,” says David Pontell, the podiatrist who ultimately treated the injury. “That was one of them.”

Some 12 million people worldwide are taking part in the cardio dance bonanza that is Zumba. And some of them are getting injured.

“We see a lot of ankle strains,” says Rajeev Pandarinath, an associate professor at George Washington University’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. “There are a lot of lateral moves in Zumba.”

“I’ve seen some sprains; I’ve seen some stress fractures,” says Elizabeth Delasobera, an physician at Georgetown University Hospital’s ER. The reasoning, she speculates: A novice starting a running program will probably jog only two or three times a week, for 15 or 20 minutes. But somebody who starts a Zumba program? “They’re Zumba-ing five days a week.”

“It was embarrassing to talk to my doctor about it,” says Karen Montague, a 40-something cartoonist who Zumba-injured her back.

But when she mentioned it to the nurse, the nurse wanted to know where she, too, could find a good place to Zumba.