You notice that your leg below the knee is swollen, but before diagnosing yourself, you need to understand the reasons that caused the swelling.
The most common cause of swelling in the lower leg area is the accumulation of lymph in the lower part of the limb. In other cases, the legs may become swollen due to an increase in connective tissue resulting from blood stagnation or excess fat deposits if the person weighs more than a hundred kilograms. In order to make a correct diagnosis, you need to have an exhaustive amount of data on this problem.
To make it easier for the doctor to make a diagnosis, the patient should tell him how long ago the swelling of the lower leg appeared, whether it spreads to the feet, and which leg swells more, the right or left. Depending on the stage of the disease (chronic or acute), appropriate treatment will be prescribed.
It is also worth paying attention to how symmetrical the changes are; this factor is very important. Swelling below the knee can appear on both limbs, and sometimes affects only one, spreading to the feet and fingers.
During the examination, it is necessary to understand what led to the swelling in your case. If changes have been observed for a long time, then most likely the matter is an advanced disease that has caused damage to the lymphatic and venous system. If asymmetric swelling is noticed, then this is to blame.
Symmetry observed below the knee is a sign of heart, liver or kidney failure. Next, we will move on to a more detailed consideration of each of the causes of swelling on the lower leg.
This type of edema is called peripheral. Its cause is excessive accumulation of lymph in the lower part of the limb. Such swelling does not cause pain.
different stages of leg tumor
Pain is felt if the swelling is caused by injury. Edema associated with fluid accumulation most often appears in people with poor circulation and is a sign that serious heart problems may develop in the future.
If the left or right leg swells at the bottom, first of all it is necessary to find out what the cause of this pathology is, because the treatment of this disease will depend on this.
In the modern world, swelling below the knee with the absence of any pain is a fairly common phenomenon. They are especially pronounced in people of retirement age. If the swelling is symmetrical, then both limbs are affected, but if it is asymmetrical, then only one, often in a certain area.
Swelling can be noticed not only on the lower leg. In some cases, it spreads to the entire foot. The causes of this problem lie in the disruption of the outflow of lymphatic fluid and thrombophlebitic changes in the deep veins of the legs.
Thrombosis affecting the deep veins is an extremely unpleasant condition where the veins are clogged with clots blocking the normal flow of blood. In addition, they close the gaps in the vessels, causing stagnation of blood and lymph in the lower extremities.
Often, such problems indicate weakness and fragility of the venous walls. They appear after injuries and surgical interventions, when post-traumatic swelling puts pressure on the venous walls. Signs of a blood clot are swelling and discoloration of the skin in the area of the leg where the blood flow has been disrupted.
Thrombosis can have complications. It also happens that it becomes chronic, damaging the venous valves, leading to problems with blood circulation through the veins. Blood flows poorly not only to the limbs, but also to other organs, often leading to their pathological condition. The disease develops slowly, eventually moving into a more noticeable stage, leading to noticeable swelling below the knee , and sometimes in the feet.
The areas affected by thrombosis first become pink, then reddish, the upper layer of the epidermis begins to peel and itch. And if a person is often on his feet, he experiences severe pain. Painful sensations may pass at rest, but when bending the knee they may return again.
If you know these symptoms and you are still putting off visiting a doctor, do so urgently, otherwise the disease will progress, which over time can even lead to death. Do not try to cure the disease at home, because without identifying the cause, you will not be able to cope with swelling below the knee on your own.
To prevent the disease from becoming chronic, it is necessary to be treated on time and correctly. Ignoring swelling of the lower leg is very dangerous, since blood clots can begin to form not only in the leg, but throughout the body, leading to disastrous consequences.
The acute course of the disease can be observed due to mechanical influences (trauma, surgery); sometimes swelling of the lower leg is caused by gangrene, which quickly progresses and requires urgent treatment, often surgical.
If swelling has appeared for a long time and the swelling does not subside, most likely the disease is advanced and progressing, leading to excess fluid accumulating in the body.
Hematoma on the leg after a bruise
Swelling of the lower leg with the presence of algia often appears after injuries and surgical interventions, and not necessarily if the swelling is exactly in the place where the mechanical damage occurred.
Surgery performed in the pelvic floor can also lead to poor circulation, which will cause swelling of the limbs. If the patient has had a malignant tumor removed, swelling may appear as a result of improper lymphatic drainage in the damaged tissues, but after the recovery period it will disappear on its own.
Swelling of the lower leg can also be observed in those people who spend a lot of time on their feet or often sit. Such problems occur among office workers and surgeons who spend a lot of time in positions that are uncomfortable for the body.
Among other reasons that cause swelling are also likely to be extra pounds, infectious diseases, varicose veins in the legs and thrombophlebitic changes in certain areas of the limb.
Swelling that appears when the leg is bent can occur in pregnant women or during menstruation, when water accumulates in the body. Swelling can also provoke poor lymphatic drainage caused by constant pressure exerted on the popliteal lymph nodes or the presence of malignant tumors with metastases in the body.
Swelling of the heart muscle and inflammation of the pericardial sac can also cause problems. Preeclampsia also entails this disease as a symptom.
If the right or left leg is swollen, it is obvious that problems have begun in the body. Early detection of the causes of the problem will help you understand what to do next and choose the right treatment, which will lead to a speedy recovery. A doctor must prescribe treatment, and only with his permission can you use traditional medicine methods and so on.
If swelling appears on the extremities, you should first consult a doctor, and only then begin treatment.
If swelling occurs, you can benefit from gymnastics, which should only be performed as recommended by a doctor. Lifting small objects from the floor with your toes, circular rotations of your legs while sitting on a chair, as well as alternately tensing and relaxing your toes helps with swelling.
It would be nice if you make it a rule that every day after work you lie down on the sofa for just half an hour and put your feet on a raised platform. This way, you will allow your legs to rest and reduce swelling that appears during the day.
To reduce swelling, you can make compresses from horsetail tincture. You also need to take diuretic infusions that help remove fluid from the body and eat dried fruits that strengthen the walls of blood vessels. Flax seeds, which not only cleanse the body of toxins, but also improve the outflow of stagnant lymph, will not interfere with the treatment process.
Now you know why swelling in the legs appears and what to do if you notice such symptoms in yourself.
Do not treat yourself, leave this matter to the doctor, because recovery will depend on its correct treatment. Don’t forget about preventing the onset of the disease, then these unpleasant problems will not affect you.
The lower limbs are often subjected to heavy loads, which leads to disruption of their full functioning.
Leg pain in the hip area is one of the most common symptoms of the disease.
When the right or left leg hurts in the hip area, it is not always possible to say about the development of pathology.
Painful sensations can come from a violation:
It is important to understand that the causes of leg pain in the knee and hip area can be very different. The fact is that the hips are made up of multiple formations and structures, and all of them can be a source of pain.
To correctly determine the diagnosis, you do not need to self-medicate. A professional doctor can accurately identify the disease.
There are numerous reasons why the upper leg may hurt.
Soft tissues can become traumatized, resulting in bruises, abrasions, sprains and tears in the ligaments or tendons of the hip, knee and hip, resulting in severe pain.
The reasons may lie in bone injury, which in turn leads to bruises and subperiosteal hematoma, complete and incomplete hip fracture, and femoral neck fracture.
With inflammation of the soft tissues, the patient may develop a purulent-infectious process on the skin and subcutaneous tissue, myositis in the form of muscle inflammation, and tenosynovitis.
With inflammation and other types of damage to bone tissue, chronic or acute forms of osteomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, osteoporosis, and aseptic necrosis of the femoral head develop.
Some of the reasons may lie in tumor damage to the bone and soft tissues of the thigh. This leads to the appearance of leukemia, osteosarcoma, myosarcoma, angiofibrosarcoma, metastasis of a malignant tumor in the hip bone.
In any case, the doctor first diagnoses the disease based on what exactly the patient feels. The pain can be local in nature, spread over a small or large area.
Pain sensations can also be sharp, dull, sudden, prolonged, spread in the form of a stripe and have secondary symptoms.
To determine the reason why your leg hurts from the knee and above, it is important to identify additional symptoms that accompany the pain.
It is necessary to find out the connection between pain syndromes and existing symptoms and determine whether they are the cause of one or more diseases.
Of all the symptoms associated with pain in the knee and hip area, you can highlight:
Acute and severe pain always indicates the emergence of serious problems in the human body. Similar sensations may indicate:
About the presence of a suppurative process on the lower limb. Typically, such symptoms are accompanied by swelling, slight redness and increased body temperature.
. The patient finds it difficult to move and walk, and the pain gradually increases. The leg may hurt moderately for some time, and after a few days the pain becomes critical.
Injury to bone tissue, joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons of the pelvis, knee or hip. Pain may not occur immediately after injury, but after a few days. Due to the fact that blood and fluid accumulate, a feeling of fullness occurs under the knee. When diagnosing a disease, the doctor always looks for the presence of abrasions, bruises, and hematomas.
About progressive intervertebral hernia. As the size and instability of the formation increases, the patient always experiences sharp pain at the site where the intervertebral hernia is detected. Additionally, the lower limb may be pulled or an attack may occur in the form of sharp pain along the outgoing nerve. Sometimes this sensation is called a shooting along the outer femoral surface.
About acute thrombophlebitis. During the inflammatory process, blood clots form in the area of the great saphenous vein. In this case, all surrounding tissues participate in the process.
An inflammatory infiltrate forms at the site of the vein on the inside of the thigh. The patient feels sharp pain that intensifies during movement.
Quite often, the patient may experience chronic pain that continues for many months and years. The pain can be aching, stabbing, accompanied by numbness, occur spontaneously or as a result of any reason.
Such sensations occur periodically and may pass after a certain period of time. It is safe to say that almost every person has felt this type of pain, regardless of age or the presence of serious diseases.
The leg may ache due to several reasons:
Varicose veins cause periodic pain along the course of the vein that is susceptible to varicose veins. Typically this area is the inner thigh above the knee.
This pain can occur with prolonged standing on your feet and heavy physical activity.
Very often, the cause of pain in the legs is a pathological change in the spine and intervertebral discs. When the disease is advanced, osteochondrosis irritates the nerve roots. This manifests itself in the form of frequent or constant aching pain in the area from the buttocks to the knee. This may include pain in the lower back, while the leg muscles weaken and areas of the skin become numb.
If a person’s legs hurt below the knees, this is a symptom of numerous diseases. The lower leg area consists of several groups of anatomical structures: muscles, ligaments, tibia and fibula, a set of nerve plexuses, and blood vessels.
To facilitate the differentiation of pain syndrome, doctors divide the lower leg into anterior and posterior sections, which are separated from each other on one side by the inner edge of the tibia, and on the other by the posterior part of the fibula (together with the ankle). In the front there are more muscle structures, and in the back there are ligaments, blood vessels and nerves.
Most often the legs hurt below the knee due to high physical activity. Minor tendon injuries do not cause severe clinical symptoms, with the exception of occasional colicky pain when walking.
Mechanical damage over time with constant physical activity is complicated by inflammatory changes, which is why swelling appears in the area of damage along the front surface of the lower leg.
The second most common cause of pain below the knees is diseases of the spine, in which the nerve root is compressed (intervertebral hernia, severe osteochondrosis, spondylosis). It intensifies with sharp turns of the body and palpation of the back of the lower leg.
The third reason why legs hurt is bursitis (inflammatory changes in the knee sheaths), which occurs as a consequence of arthrosis of the knee joint or damage to its meniscus.
With a pronounced narrowing of the joint space of the knee, the cartilaginous structures are damaged with the formation of inflammatory fluid. It accumulates in the tendon sheaths, so in pathology, swelling of the popliteal fossa is observed. It can be felt along the back of the knee joint.
Varicose veins of the lower extremities or vascular thrombosis (accumulations of blood clots) also lead to pain below the knee, since with this pathology there is stagnation of blood, leading to overstretching of the vascular wall. Against this background, pain in the lower leg area is constantly observed. It is aching in nature and intensifies in the evening.
When the pain still occurs:
Typically, pain below the knee is not localized. The width of its spread is 10-15 cm, which indicates extensive damage to the anatomical structures of the leg. The pain syndrome intensifies with physical activity and weakens when it stops.
The severity of the syndrome increases in smokers, as they have impaired blood supply at the site of injury.
With vein thrombosis, the pain is quite intense. The pathology poses a serious danger to human life, since a thrombus (blood clot) can migrate to the arteries of the lung or brain. This increases the likelihood of fatal conditions - pulmonary embolism (PE) and strokes.
Atherosclerosis is not as dangerous as thrombosis, but in smokers it can be combined with Raynaud's disease (spasm of small vessels), which creates constant aching pain along the back of the leg at the location of the calf muscles.
With osteomyelitis of the tibia or fibula, pain in the lower knee is combined with purulent discharge on the surface of the skin through an open fistula. Their intensity greatly depends on the state of the human immune system.
For athletes, damage to the meniscus of the knee is more common. In this case, the pain syndrome is combined with limited mobility.
With most pathological changes below the knees, a “pins and needles movement” first appears along the muscle structures of the lower leg. At first, this symptom is not characterized by pain, but over time the person develops a feeling of “boiling water poured on the skin.” A throbbing pain gradually appears, which bothers the person throughout the working day. You have to slow down your walking pace and choose the most comfortable position to reduce pain.
If the above symptoms are not treated, the intensity of clinical signs increases. After running, the legs begin to “twist” so that a person needs to lie down for several days to restore health.
The final stage – the burning sensation becomes unbearable. After walking, a feeling of heat is created. Similar signs are formed symmetrically on both sides.
Thus, the symptom occurs for many reasons. In most cases, the pain cannot be completely cured. The combination of medications and traditional methods eliminates mobility restrictions, but the pathology must be treated regularly and for a long time.