What are the Main Causes of Leg Pain?
When it comes to leg pain, more often than not, the source of your pain is one of two things:
- Local: Designating your pain as local means that the source of your discomfort resides in your leg. This pain can stem from several things, such as –
- A fracture
- A muscle pull or tear
- Arthritis
- Infection
- Tendinitis
- Knee or ankle issues
- Claudication, which is a circulation issue
- Spine: Your lumbar spine, or lower back, is where the nerves in your legs originate, so often, the pain you feel in your legs comes from a problem in your spine that’s affecting the nerve root and radiating through your legs. This is often tied to –
- Sciatica
- Degenerative disc disease
- Stenosis
- Herniated disc
What are the Types of Leg Pain?
While the answer to this question may seem obvious — pain is pain, the type, location, and occurrence of your leg pain give your doctor valuable diagnostic information. With that in mind, leg pain can be:
- Constant and nagging
- Acute with certain movements
- Accompanied by numbness, tingling, and weakness
These symptoms, along with a review of your medical history and diagnostic imaging, give your doctor the information they need to treat your leg pain.
How is Leg Pain Treated?
At Delaware Pain Relief, the first order of business is finding a treatment that works to relieve your pain. In the case of your legs, and depending upon the source of your pain, your doctor may turn to one or more of the following treatments:
- Lumbar epidural injections
- Selective lumbar epidural and root blocks
- Peripheral nerve blocks
- Spinal cord stimulation
- Lumbar facet injections and medial branch blocks
- Discography
Thanks to the wide array of options, your doctor can choose an acne treatment that best meets your goals. Should your pain resist treatment, rest assured that they work with you until your leg pain is resolved.
Understanding Leg Pain: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Options
Leg pain can be intermittent or constant. It can start gradually or suddenly. The pain can range from mild achiness to severe and unrelenting shooting pain. There are traumatic causes of pain from injury, but also several different diseases that can cause significant leg pain, numbness, or swelling.
Causes
There are many, many potential causes of leg pain. Novocur Pain Management Clinics commonly treat the following causes of leg pain:
Chondromalacia patella
Degenerative changes cause soft spots or wear-and-tear changes to the underside of the knee and the ap (patella). The
Degenerative Disc Disease
Thinning of spinal discs often causes pressure on nerve roots exiting the lumbar spine, which can cause radiating leg pain that can travel to the foot.
Fibromyalgia
A pain amplification syndrome that affects pain processing in the central nervous system may commonly manifest with tender pain points in the inner legs, gluteal area, and many points in the upper body.
Knee Bursitis
Swelling of fluid-filled sacs and fluid-filled joints can cause significant pain.
Herniated Disc
Bulging, herniation, or sequestration of the gel-like center of the spinal disc can apply pressure to nerve roots or the spinal cord and cause significant radiating nerve pain in either or both legs.
Osteoarthritis
Wear-and-tear cartilage in the t, knee, or hip joints can cause arthritic-type pain arthritic-type.
Peripheral Neuropathy
Damage to the nerves in the leg from injury or systemic disease can cause pain, numbness, loss of balance, and weakness in the legs. The pain is often described as walking on pins. Symptoms can also feel like a sock is always on the foot, reducing sensation.
Sciatica
Branches of several nerve roots exiting the lower spine combine to form the large sciatic nerve that travels from the bar of the spine to the front. Irritation of this nerve can cause numbness, cramping, pins and needles, shooting pain, and muscle weakness in the leg.
Spinal Stenosis
A narrowing of the canals within the spine where nerve tissue travels – either the spinal cord or the nerves that branch off the spinal cord at every level of the spine.
Treatment
Treatment for leg pain will vary considerably depending upon diagnosis but may include any of the following:
Therapy
Chiropractic or Physical Therapy is often recommended for various types of leg pain issues, particularly to help with regaining proper balance, gait, strength, and stability. Orthotics, tics, bracing, taping, exercises, muscle stimulation, low-level laser therapy, joint low-level laser therapy, or other treatments may be required.
Pharmacological Intervention
Various types of NSAIDs, nerve painNSAIDstions, muscle relaxants, or opiate pain meds and ications mayactionsized in concert with interventional procedures and conservative to help control many pain syndromes.
Corticosteroid Injection
An injection of an anti-inflammatory medication into or around a painful joint, bursa, nerve, tendon, or muscle can often dramatically diminish swelling and pain in that area.
Epidural Steroid Injection
An injection of an anti-inflammatory medication around a painful nerve root or spinal disc via the epidural space overlaying the spine can rapidly diminish radiating pain in the leg from sciatica, degenerative disc disease, disc herniation, osteoarthritis of the spine, and various other pain types.
Spinal Cord Stimulators
Radiating leg pain that has failed to resolve from surgical intervention or uncontrollable peripheral neuropathy pain in the feet or legs may be conditions treatable by a newer type of technology called neuromodulation. A spinal cord stimulator blocks the reception of leg and back pain, bombarding the spinal cord with small amounts of electrical current through thin wire leads placed into real space overlying the spine. The effect is to replace effectuating back pain with pleasant vibration sensations.
If leg pain impacts your quality of life, call Delaware Pain Relief or schedule a consultation using the online booking tool.
