These normally receive urgent medical attention. Stress fractures are small fractures that can result from repetitive stresses sustained during sports, often when the intensity of activity increases too quickly.
There is no single injury, and the fractures are small. The pain may start at an earlier stage during each exercise session, and eventually become present all the time. This produces knee pain during downhill running.
It is caused by inflammation of the popliteus tendon, which is important for knee stability. Acute trauma can lead to sprains and strains. A sprain refers to a stretching or tearing.
A strain is an injury to the muscles or tendons. Often associated with running, a hamstring strain can lead to acute pain in the rear of the thigh muscle, usually due to a partial tear. Sprains and strains usually develop because of inadequate flexibility training, overstretching, or not warming up before an activity.
Continuing to exercise while injured increases the risk. When an injury to the leg results in swelling, dangerous levels of pressure in the muscles can lead to acute or chronic compartment syndrome.
This could be due to a fracture or severe bruising. The swelling causes pressure to build up until the blood supply to muscle tissue is cut off, depleting the muscles of oxygen and nourishment. The pain may be unexpectedly severe, considering the injury. In severe cases, early pain may be followed by numbness and paralysis.
Permanent muscle damage can result. Sciatica happens when pressure is put on a nerve, often in the spine, leading to pains that run down the leg from the hip to the foot.
Long-term effects include strain on other parts of the body as the gait changes to compensate for the pain. Ovarian cancer can lead to pain and swelling in the legs. If serious causes of cramps have been ruled out, self-help measures can be appropriate. Painkillers will not improve leg cramps , because they start suddenly, but stretching and massaging the muscle may help. To relieve the pain when cramps occur:.
Minor sports injuries, such as leg sprains and strains can be treated with RICE:. Drugs such as acetaminophen or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can help with some pain, but if pain persists for more than 72 hours, specialist medical advice should be sought. A return to activity should be graduated in its intensity, to build up flexibility, strength, and endurance safely. Medical attention is needed for claudication and other symptoms of vascular disease, because of the risk of heart attack or stroke.
To reduce cardiovascular risk factors, people are advised to :. Leg pain has many different causes, and the symptoms often overlap. If they persist, worsen, or make life difficult, the individual should see a doctor. A differential diagnosis strategy can help rule out inappropriate causes, narrow down the possibilities, and provide timely intervention. Outer thigh pain has many possible causes, and it can vary in severity. Learn about the most common causes and their treatments here.
If peripheral artery disease is serious, or isn't improving with exercise and medication, doctors can reopen the blocked artery with angioplasty or use part of a blood vessel from elsewhere in the body to reroute circulation around the blockage. But the track record of these revascularization procedures is mixed, and some studies suggest that the results from a structured exercise program can be as good, or even better.
Like peripheral artery disease, chronic venous insufficiency is a condition of poor circulation, but it involves the veins and the blood's return trip back to the heart and lungs.
Our arteries are springy and help push blood along, but our veins are relatively passive participants in circulation. Particularly in the legs, it's the muscles surrounding the veins that provide the pumping power that drains the vessels near the surface of the skin and then push the blood up through the "deeper" vessels that travel toward the heart. Tiny valves inside the veins even out the pressure and keep the blood from flowing backward.
In people with chronic venous insufficiency, the valves are damaged, so blood tends to pool in the legs and feet instead of traveling "north" to the heart. It's often a vicious cycle: if the valves aren't working, pressure from the blood collecting in the veins increases, so the veins stretch out.
As a result, the valves don't close properly, so even more blood flows backward, adding pressure. Symptoms include swelling, inflammation of the skin dermatitis and the connective tissue underneath cellulitis , and ulcerated, open wounds on the bony "bumps" of the ankle. Legs may feel achy or heavy. And when people walk, they may feel a tight, "bursting" pain, most often in the groin or thigh. The leg pain will stop with rest but may take longer to ease up than the pain from peripheral artery disease.
The symptoms from a mild case of chronic venous insufficiency can be helped by lying on your back and using a pillow to elevate your legs so blood flows downhill to the heart. If you're sitting for long periods, pointing your toes up and down several times can flex the vein-pumping leg muscles. More serious cases needed to be treated with compression stockings that squeeze harder at the ankle than at the knee. For the stockings to work, they must be much tighter than the "antiembolism" stockings people routinely wear in the hospital.
But because they are so tight, people often have a hard time getting them on. Washing a new pair can help. Some people coat their skin with talcum powder or wear thin, regular stockings underneath. Devices called "wire donners" hold the stockings open so people can push a foot and leg into it.
There are no specific medicines to treat venous insufficiency. Surgical procedures have improved significantly over the years. Nowadays varicose vein therapy has moved very far away from the old-fashioned saphenous vein stripping. That procedure involved making an incision in the groin and leg, inserting a stripping device into the vein, and pulling the vein out of the body.
It usually required general anesthesia, an overnight hospital stay and weeks of recovery. Today, physicians usually close the vein permanently rather than remove it. They use one of several minimally invasive techniques, performed through catheters inserted into the veins under ultrasound guidance. These treatments are performed in outpatient settings under local anesthesia, and the patient can walk immediately after treatment.
Stenosis pronounced ste-NO-sis is a medical term for any kind of narrowing. Spinal stenosis can occur anywhere along the spine as a result of the vertebrae, the disks between them, or their supporting structures impinging on the tube-like spinal canal that holds the spinal cord and the roots of the nerves that branch off of it. Pain comes from the mechanical pressure, and perhaps also from the pinching off of blood flow to nerves.
The lumbar region of the spine consists of the five large vertebrae that form the small of the back. When spinal stenosis occurs in the lumbar region, lower back pain can be a symptom but often it's the legs that are affected.
The pain can resemble the pain caused by peripheral artery disease: cramping tightness that increases with walking, although it's often felt in the thigh rather than the calf. The legs may also feel weak and numb. In the past, the leg pain caused by lumbar stenosis was called pseudoclaudication because it was unrelated to blocked arteries, and doctors didn't understand that it could be caused by spinal problems.
Now the preferred medical term seems to be neurogenic which means originating from the nervous system claudication. Vertebrae, disks, and other parts of the spine impinge on the spinal cord and nerves branching off of it. The diagnosis starts with discussion of symptoms and medical history. One important clue is whether the pain eases when the back is curved forward, or flexed. That posture tends to take pressure off the lumbar region, and it's the reason some people with lumbar spinal stenosis find it easier to walk when leaning on a grocery cart or a walker.
An MRI or CT scan will often be ordered to confirm a diagnosis, but imaging studies shouldn't be used to make one. Many people have spinal stenosis that shows up on an imaging study but doesn't cause any symptoms.
Treatment usually begins with physical therapy and exercises aimed at strengthening back and abdominal muscles. Pain relievers may help. Growing numbers of older patients are getting corticosteroid injections into the spine, which worries some experts. Evidence that the shots are effective is mixed.
Most pain results from wear and tear, overuse, or injuries in joints, bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons or other soft tissues. Pain can be traced to problems in the lower spine. Blood clots, varicose veins or poor circulation are other causes. Leg pain may manifest itself in a wide variety of symptoms — sharp, dull, heavy, aching, or burning.
It may be constant or intermittent; made better or worse with activity or rest. There may be other associated symptoms. Painful muscles and joints may be palpated — touching the area reproduce the pain. Pain may be referred — radiate from its source to another location. Patients may experience impairment, pain or discomfort while walking, standing or exercising, which is relieved by rest.
This is known as claudication and is due to narrowing of blood vessels. Ischemia decreased oxygen supply to the tissues causes acute, intense pain, which may be accompanied by numbness or paralysis. People with neuropathy tend to describe their pain as a burning sensation, while those who have sciatica describe the intense sharp pain. Sciatica may also cause changes in sensation along the path of the inflamed nerve root. Peripheral artery disease PAD : Pain in one or both legs may be due to a decrease in arterial blood supply due to narrowing arteries.
Blood clots : in an artery can completely obstruct blood supply, preventing tissues from getting oxygen, causing acute pain. Low back pain from sciatica inflammation of the sciatic nerve may radiate into the buttocks and down the leg. Spinal stenosis narrowing of spinal canal may result in pain, numbness, and weakness.
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