The topic of the article is related to the occurrence and treatment of lower leg pain in humans. Let's find out what the shin is and where it is located. The lower leg is the part of the leg located from the knee to the foot. We are talking about the front surface of the lower leg, let's find out why the pain appears here. The buttock and thighs are not related to the lower leg, but they are interconnected.
The leg is an organ of support and movement for a person. Pain in a leg joint should not be ignored. If your leg joints hurt for several days, consult a doctor.
Unpleasant sensations in the front surface of the shin are explained by stretching of the muscle in the ankle joint.
Redness and swelling appear in the area of the leg located above the joint, and the temperature of the skin around the affected area rises. Difficulty moving the leg. The periosteum of the lower leg, located below the knee, above the foot, hurts, and a lump forms in the knee area. If such manifestations occur, you should consult a doctor.
It happens that the pain in the hip area smoothly moves to the lower part of the leg. Causes: hip injury, pathologies of the structure of the hip joint, diseases of the spine, oncology. The pain is aching in nature and intensifies at night.
A popliteal cyst is formed as a result of a fresh injury or a long-forgotten old one. Sharp pain in the lower leg joint occurs due to the rupture of a popliteal cyst. Fluid from the cyst enters the muscle space, causing an inflammatory process.
In the initial stages, the cyst is not noticeable and does not cause any disturbance to the owner when walking, in a calm state. After some time, a lump forms on the knee. Sometimes a large cyst does not cause any discomfort, except when bending the foot or knee.
Osteoma is a common disease; pain occurs due to the appearance of a tumor in the lower leg. We are talking about a benign tumor. There were no cases of degeneration of such a tumor into a malignant one. For a long time, the disease is asymptomatic and painless, and it is almost impossible to identify the disease in the early stages.
Osteoma appears more often in young men. It looks like a small bump or swelling. Osteoma is treated at the first stage of the disease. It is possible to detect a tumor; it grows from the front, pressing on nearby organs or tissues. A person feels discomfort in the area of the tumor. The appearance of the first symptoms should not be ignored.
Heaviness in the front of a person's legs is caused by tension in the leg muscles. The legs hurt, swell, there is a feeling of heaviness, and the soles of the feet hurt. When walking for a long time, pain occurs on the back of the lower leg. Constant stress on the legs leads to pain in the feet, hips, and buttock pain. The pain increases with running and jumping, and then tension in the joint and foot muscles occurs when walking.
Do not suddenly start playing sports, jumping, lifting weights. If you decide to run in the morning, try to do it gradually, starting with short loads. During pregnancy, women experience heaviness in the front and back surfaces of the lower leg, and the load on the muscles of the legs and feet increases.
Osteosarcoma is a malignant bone tumor. It is rare and requires attention, medical supervision, and immediate surgery. Failure to conduct a timely examination and operation leads to dire consequences.
It occurs due to strong pressure on the muscles of the lower leg, and hemorrhage occurs in the damaged muscles. The injury occurs as a result of the limb being under compression for a long time - after the leg is released from the weight. A hematoma or lump forms in the lower leg joint, and swelling appears around it. The surrounding skin turns red, becomes hot, and the person feels severe pain in the problem area.
Prolonged exposure of the leg under weight causes respiratory spasm in a person, leading to poor circulation. After release, the patient complains of nausea, weakness, pain in the injured limb - long-term muscle compression syndrome.
Inflammation of the sciatic nerve. A person has pain in the buttocks or thighs, radiating to the surface of the lower legs. The source of inflammation is localized in the lower back, the buttock begins to ache, the pain goes to the hips and below. Inflamed on one side - left or right.
It occurs in women during pregnancy due to severe stress on the spine. The pain occurs periodically and is localized in different areas: legs, hips, legs, buttocks.
Damage to the kneecap occurs as a result of a strong blow, falling on the knee, or twisting. Swelling in the joint, pulsation in the front surface of the shin, redness in the knee area, a lump on the damaged area are signs of knee damage. When the meniscus is damaged, complete knee dysfunction occurs. The leg needs rest.
Osteomyelitis is inflammation of bone tissue. The causes of osteomyelitis of the leg are infections that enter the body. This disease is a consequence of previous leg injuries, especially open fractures. The disease is serious. Symptoms: headache, nausea, vomiting, chills, severe weakness, severe pain in the injured leg.
The periosteum, part of the front surface of the leg, hurts, and a lump appears on the skin. The buttock, hips, and feet can become inflamed. If you have symptoms, you should consult a doctor immediately. When the disease becomes chronic, the person’s condition improves, body temperature decreases, and pain subsides. Acute osteomyelitis appears more often in childhood.
Nagging pain in the legs occurs on the back of the lower leg; there are situations when the front part of the leg and the feet themselves also hurt. If you feel strange pain in your legs, the pain intensifies when walking, do not put off visiting a doctor. An experienced doctor will help if the causes of the disease are serious. Pay attention to your health and undergo periodic preventive examinations.
For osteosarcoma, immediate hospitalization is required; treatment is carried out under the supervision of experienced doctors. First you need to identify the causes of the disease. You cannot hope that joint pain will go away on its own. Osteomas are treated with a single surgical intervention, removal of the tumor.
Crash syndrome, compression syndrome, is treated under the mandatory supervision of doctors. It is important that the patient receives the right help after being released from the gravity. The leg needs to be tightly bandaged with a tourniquet above the injury site and ice applied. Give the person a painkiller and sedative. It is important to quickly deliver the patient to a medical facility; lost time leads to amputation of the limb.
Osteomyelitis causes pain in the front of the leg, buttocks, knees, foot, and thigh. Osteomyelitis is a deadly disease. It is important to start treatment at the first symptoms, having first found out the causes. The patient is prescribed strong antibiotics, selected individually, depending on the degree and nature of the disease. Osteomyelitis often requires surgical intervention; sometimes physiotherapy on the diseased surface is done.
If the meniscus is damaged, treatment includes puncture of the fluid located in the joint, the knee must be immobilized using a special splint, and the meniscus must be realigned.
If we talk about traditional methods of treating pain in the front of the leg, it is worth noting that chamomile relieves inflammation and swelling in the joint, regardless of the cause. If your leg is red, make a compress with chamomile infusion. An excellent first aid remedy is ice, it reduces swelling and relieves inflammation.
The bump from a bruise will go away faster if you apply cold water. Place your sore leg on an elevation, apply a bandage, and put ice on top. When walking, the bandage should be left on the leg. Get a massage to reduce pain.
To treat pain in the joints of the legs, warming ointments and creams help - the buttock, lower back, and knees warm up.
Pain in the front of the lower leg often appears in people with bad habits - alcohol abuse, smoking. Alcohol and tobacco smoke entering the human body lead to rapid destruction of muscle tissue.
Regular, moderate exercise, for prevention, is not harmful. Muscles should be toned, swimming and daily walking are beneficial. Change your shoes to orthopedic ones, your feet will feel better, this will help relieve pain when walking. If you feel pain of unknown origin, seek help at the hospital. Specialists will help you find out the cause of pain in the front and back of the lower leg and other areas of the leg.
Pain in the lower leg is a complex and annoying problem for a person, since this ailment is a symptom of serious diseases such as thrombosis and tumors. Unfortunately, this is not a complete list of diseases that can be expressed by this discomfort in the lower leg area. Often, pain indicates the initial stage of the disease. You should be clearly aware that you simply cannot delay going to the doctor, since you can significantly aggravate an already existing unpleasant health situation. This article will discuss the main causes of problems with the lower leg, each of which has its own treatment and course. Note that some of the listed reasons can be eliminated on your own, but these are few.
Pain in the lower leg indicates illness. About half of all people who complain of this disease suffer from thrombosis. And it was he who caused the pain. Delay in treatment can lead to death. A blood clot that has formed in an artery, simply put, puts pressure on everything around, which is why discomfort occurs. The danger is that it can break away from the walls and quickly overtake a vein, which it will immediately clog. Moreover, the vein that may be blocked will not necessarily be located in the lower extremities. The blood clot can move through the veins without problems until it blocks one of them. As they say, it’s a matter of chance. If this deadly element gets stuck in the main bloodstream of the lungs, death will follow immediately. Thus, a person who has pain in the lower leg when walking simply does not have the right to be negligent in relation to his own health.
There are various diagnostic methods that allow you to determine a specific disease, since there are a lot of them. First of all, a competent specialist will focus on eliminating the possibility of thrombosis, since this is the most serious disease. At any stage, there is a high probability of only surgical removal of the blood clot.
The shin is the part of the leg that lies between the heel and the knee. It contains the fibula and tibia. They, in turn, have a cup above the knee. From below, these bones pass into the ankles, which are their processes. Doctors divide the lower leg into the back and the front.
As for the muscles, they are located along the front of the bones and along the back. There is a division of them into three groups. The anterior muscles help extend the toes and the entire foot. The extrinsic muscles, in turn, help the foot flex and rotate. The posterior muscles, or calf muscles, are needed to flex the foot and toes.
There are often cases when a person has lower leg pain, but there is no disease. But to exclude all possible diseases, you should also consult a specialist. Let's look at the mechanism of pain for a better understanding.
The lower leg, like any other part of the body in principle, is riddled with thousands of nerve endings. They, in fact, help a person feel pain. There are nerves in muscles, tissues, and even tendons. In other words, they are not found only in bones. Thus, any part can become inflamed, and along with it the nerve endings. That is why a person feels pain - irritation of nerve receptors. Citing the same thrombosis as an example, it is worth noting that with it the walls of blood vessels and the tissue around them become inflamed.
But as mentioned earlier, the cause of pain is not always illness. Constant stress on your legs can cause discomfort in the calf area. When the front part of the shin hurts, then most likely the muscles felt overstrained.
Girls who spontaneously decided to get themselves into the long-awaited shape begin to feverishly run and jump in order to achieve the desired result as quickly as possible. But for an unprepared body this is a colossal load. Shin pain after running is a common occurrence with such an illiterate sports approach. But this kind of stress can also cause heart rhythm disturbances, as well as increased blood pressure. The same applies if a person regularly gave his body stable high loads, and then, for some reason, stopped exercising. Muscles and tendons that are used to being in good shape feel immobilized and begin to tear from pain.
It’s not for nothing that it is recommended to consult a trainer to play sports competently. Because only a qualified trainer will tell a person the load that will be optimal for him. Subject to a gradual increase in load.
Simply put, the main cause of discomfort in the lower leg is the difference in loads on the legs. It is worth paying attention to how much you have to walk, climb stairs and even jump. If pain does occur, you should resort to the use of ointments, of which there are currently a great variety in pharmacies. Many fans and simply connoisseurs of sports have noticed that sports doctors rush to apply ice to the athlete’s injured leg muscles. This is a very effective method, so you can’t discount it. If the pain persists after 3-5 days of using ointments, light massage and rest, you should visit a specialist at a medical institution.
The cause of injuries can be all kinds of dislocations and even fractures. In these situations, self-medication is excluded, because a whole list of consequences can be provoked. Pain during fractures is characteristically acute.
Irritation of any area of the lower leg structure provokes the formation of pain. Its types and mechanisms of occurrence are different due to the nature and specific location of the damage.
Situations that provoke pain in the lower leg
2. Area of ligaments, tendons:
3. Bone, articular area:
4. Vascular, nervous area:
What causes pain in the lower leg. What types of pain are there, and for what reasons are they formed? One of the ways to eliminate discomfort.
1. Fracture . Initially, the pain is localized, but soon covers the entire limb. The ankle joint faces mobility restrictions.
4. Gas gangrene . Penetration of clostridia bacteria into the wound.
1. Soft tissue injury (trauma without fracture):
2. Burn . The result of exposure to boiling water, oil and other hot objects/substances. A red spot forms, and sometimes a watery blister. Read also - first aid for burns.
4. Anterior tunnel syndrome . Accompanied by inflammation, swelling, and noticeable discomfort in the foot. It intensifies when moving the limb.
7. Shin splints syndrome . It is formed when a sufficient load is created on the lower limbs without preparation. During training, aching pain of weak or moderate intensity is observed, which disappears soon after the end of training.
9. Myositis. Muscle inflammation forms during severe physical activity. Manifests itself in the form of severe local pain during compression and certain movements. Without treatment, muscle weakening and atrophy occurs.
1. Getting injured without a fracture . Painful discomfort is caused by damage to soft tissues.
4. Inflammation of the Achilles tendon . It is attached to the heel bone and becomes inflamed under heavy loads. The aching pain can intensify if the foot is bent.
From the inside:
Pain in the lower leg when walking and running
1. Periostitis . The pain makes itself felt 2-3 days after a serious workout, fracture, or bruise. Accompanied by swelling and pain when touched.
3. Osteomyelitis . Symptoms:
4. Carpal tunnel syndrome.
1. Periostitis. Occurs as a result of heavy stress on the legs. Marked by the following changes:
2. Osgood-Schlatter disease (“life in slow motion”).
1. Varicose veins . The posterior surface of the calf is covered with dilated veins.
4. Muscle soreness . Their overload during training and work is marked by severe pain, which subsides at rest.
6. Violation of innervation . Occurs in the lumbar spine in the following diseases:
7. Tunnel syndrome of different directions.
1. Tissue injury . Formation of a bruise or hemorrhage due to contusion, crushing, or compression.
3. Erysipelas/herpetic inflammation.
4. Phlegmon . Due to penetrating wounds or the formation of trophic ulcers, subcutaneous tissue is destroyed by purulent bacteria, represented by the following types:
Severe pain in the lower leg
Modern medicine offers many methods of treating shin pain. It all depends on the cause, exact localization and complications that have already arisen.
Pain at the top of the lower leg. Why does it occur, list of reasons. How to relieve discomfort in the periosteum using improvised means and drugs. General recommendations.
Ankle dislocation
Osgood-Schlatter disease (tuberosity osteochondropathy)
— thermal treatment, magnetic therapy, UHF therapy (improves blood circulation).
- in case of calcium deficiency, medications are prescribed to replenish its deficiency;
- measures for pain relief using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Shin splint syndrome
- improving blood supply to tissues;
- normalizing bone metabolic processes.
- cold compress (ice bag);
- refusal of bandages, clothes of a pressing/squeezing nature.
- ensure active physical activity;
- eliminate bad habits.
— saturation of tissues with oxygen (“Actovegin”);
— lowering cholesterol (“Pravastatin”, “Simvastatin”).
- decrease in blood viscosity;
- antibiotics that eliminate infectious complications;
— NPS/narcotic drugs to eliminate moderate/ischemic pain.
— dietary adjustments, diet therapy for excess weight.
- prevents the increase in venous pressure in the superficial veins;
- inhibits the progression of the disease.
- anticoagulants for blood thinning;
— angioprotectors to strengthen blood vessels and reduce their permeability;
- prevent thrombotic complications;
- slow down the progression of the disease.
1. Drug therapy.
2. Surgical intervention . It is performed in case of progression of infection and requires the following procedures:
3. Elimination of gas gangrene . Only a surgical method using striped incisions of the skin and soft tissues is effective. Non-living areas are cut out and removed, washed with hydrogen peroxide and antibacterial therapy (Tetracycline, Penicillin).
1. Chemotherapy . Elimination of malignant tumors using drugs that block cell division (cytostatics). At the same time, the division of non-pathogenic cells is disrupted, leading to various complications: hair loss, anemia, stomach ulcers, etc.
Pain in the lower leg area can be caused by various factors. Sometimes it can be resolved at home, but in other cases specialized treatment may be required. You should not neglect consulting a doctor, because a full diagnosis will allow you to identify the true cause of the problem and begin to solve it without possible consequences.