Have you ever experienced such an unpleasant sensation: your leg goes numb from the hip to the knee? Losing sensation in a limb for no apparent reason is certainly frightening. But don't get nervous prematurely. The causes of these symptoms may be simple and harmless. For example, you may simply sit awkwardly on a chair while sitting at a computer.
But if the numbness still refuses to go away, and the sensitivity is constantly getting worse, then this is a good reason to consult a doctor as soon as possible. Under no circumstances should you postpone a visit to a specialist. Only a qualified doctor will be able to correctly determine what exactly is causing your hip to go numb.
Often when visiting a doctor, patients complain of long-term numbness of the thigh in the front of the leg. In addition, it is rare to get by without pain in the lower back, burning and tingling of the leg above the knee. Much less common is loss of sensation in the inner thigh or the back of one or both legs, but similar complaints also occur. Equally rare manifestations include numbness in the leg above the hip or below the knee. Another alarm bell may be the feeling of a ball in the groin when the thigh approaches the stomach. If these symptoms are detected, you should immediately contact a specialist.
Only long-term and complex symptoms should be seriously feared. If your leg goes numb when sitting at the computer and it goes away within a couple of minutes, there is no need to sound the alarm. If the numbness is relieved by a simple massage, then there is no need to worry. In some people, the cause of temporary loss of sensitivity can even be a simple displacement of the joint. However, excessive caution never hurt anyone.
Some people's thighs only become numb when walking. This most often happens to patients who have recently experienced a heart attack and is a signal of problems with the cardiovascular system. If a person has not yet had an attack, but his heart tingles when walking, he should immediately contact a cardiologist. Numbness in the leg above the foot can be caused by insufficient blood circulation.
But what to do if you experience all the symptoms described above? Initially, you should find out about the possible causes of discomfort.
A lot of diseases can be the source of discomfort on the outer thigh. The most common diagnoses? these are intervertebral hernia, osteochondrosis and radiculitis.
Lumbar osteochondrosis and the hernia that develops against its background slowly but surely destroys the spine, first affecting the intervertebral discs.
If your leg often goes numb from the hip to the knee, this may be the first sign of the presence and progression of this disease. Sciatica also causes a loss of sensation in that area of the leg. In this disease, symptoms are associated with damage to the nerve roots of the spinal cord.
Multiple or multiple sclerosis is no less common. In everyday life, sclerosis is used to call senile memory impairment, but this disease has nothing to do with amnesia. Multiple sclerosis is the replacement of normal nerve tissue with connective tissue, which in turn causes various neurological symptoms. One of them is numbness of the limbs. This disease is extremely common throughout the world. The “target audience” of this diagnosis is young and middle-aged people, from fifteen to fifty years old. In turn, multiple sclerosis is the hardening of all brain tissue. This type of sclerosis is much more dangerous than multiple sclerosis, because it can even cause complete paralysis of the limb from the foot to the thigh.
There are other sources of problems. These include:
In order to identify the exact cause of the discomfort, you should contact a traumatologist or therapist. After the examination, the doctor will either prescribe you treatment or send you for additional examinations, for example, MRI diagnostics. Remember: finding out the correct causes of the disease is extremely important.
Tunnel and diabetic neuropathy stand apart from other diagnoses. Tunnel neuropathy occurs due to damage to the femoral nerve located in the groin area. Often, damage to nerve tissue is characterized by mechanical injuries, unsuccessful operations, and punctures. If you experience numbness in your right or left leg, and soon there is muscle weakness and a sharp decrease in the mobility of the right or left leg, most likely you have damaged the femoral nerve. This diagnosis is practically safe, unlike the following one.
Diabetic neuropathy occurs only in people with diabetes. The disease itself is a complication that almost inevitably arises from the lack of careful control of blood sugar. With neuropathy, several individual nerves or even an entire network are damaged due to which, for example, the patient’s left leg or arm goes numb. There are four types of diabetic neuropathy:
Like diabetes, this type of neuropathy is incurable, so patients can only carefully monitor their blood sugar levels. Thus, the disease will not be able to develop and cause complications.
The causes of numbness in the extremities are truly amazing in their diversity. Some of them are quite dangerous and require prompt treatment. Are you already prepared to buy many expensive medications? Then exhale. To eliminate most of the diseases described above, you will not have to spend a penny on expensive drugs. And the point is not at all that the diseases are incurable. There are a huge number of treatment methods, but they all boil down to the following:
The doctor can prescribe medications only for osteochondrosis or sclerosis in order to relieve inflammation or pain in the spine or limb. If multiple sclerosis must be treated at intervals, you may be prescribed a long course of medications that will help restore and protect the damaged parts of the spinal cord and brain. Such treatment is prescribed by a doctor individually and is used only in cases of advanced disease. Remember, self-medication is dangerous to your health!
If the causes of leg numbness lie in osteochondrosis, the attending physician may prescribe a vitamin and mineral complex designed to strengthen the spine and restore the balance of nutrients in the body. This is necessary if you do not want the disease to return.
For any diseases directly related to changes in the spine, the patient is prescribed manual therapy. Examples of such diagnoses include osteochondrosis or radiculitis. If an inflammatory process has begun in the spine, the patient should use drugs like Diclofenac, Meloxicam, Xefocam and other anti-inflammatory drugs. When the therapy is completed, the doctor draws up a special course of gymnastics or other physical activity. It is designed to restore the body and prevent relapse. Remember: the earlier treatment is started, the greater the chances of successful recovery!
Overweight people need to lose a couple of kilograms. However, in the case of older people or pregnant women, medicine is usually powerless. The first suffer from numbness in their limbs due to age. Unfortunately, humanity still does not know how to treat age. The latter become victims of the body’s preparation for childbirth. During pregnancy, the position of muscle and bone mass changes, causing pressure on nerve tissue. Such discomfort disappears soon after childbirth.
Due to the lifestyle of modern people, diseases, in particular of the spine and heart, are becoming younger and younger. A few years ago, only old people suffered from osteochondrosis or radiculitis, but now even teenagers are at risk. Sedentary work, lack of physical activity, poor nutrition - all these are the best companions for diabetes, intervertebral hernia and other unpleasant and dangerous diseases.
You cannot treat your own health negligently. At the slightest manifestation of disease, you should not hesitate, you should immediately go to the doctor and get examined, because diseases can be insidious and seem completely harmless at first glance. And when you decide to take a closer look, it will be too late. That is why you should not only contact specialists on time, but also lead a healthy lifestyle. Without proper prevention, you can bring your body to the point where, at the age of thirty, it will give a head start to any old person in terms of illnesses.
Numbness of the lower extremities is a fairly common problem that worries both the elderly and young people. In this article we will try to find the causes of numbness in the leg up to the knee/above/below the knee. Also, let’s pay attention to what can be done in a situation where your legs go numb?
In medicine, complete or partial loss of sensation in the lower extremities is called numbness or paresthesia. Most often, patients experience numbness in the area below the knees.
In this case, you will hear complaints such as: unpleasant tingling in the lower extremities, pain in the joints when moving. With a sharp one-time numbness of the lower extremities, a suspicion of diseases of the musculoskeletal system immediately arises.
At best, a person may experience numbness as a result of prolonged physical labor or after intense training in the gym. Then the numbness, as a rule, goes away after a few hours - a maximum of a few days. The lower limbs may become numb when a person applies a load that is unusual for the body. In this case, the muscles begin to secrete lactic acid in excess. The legs are painfully twisted, broken, causing painful sensations to the person.
If numbness occurs, it is imperative to consult a traumatologist, therapist and vascular surgeon.
Before we begin to describe the unpleasant symptoms of numbness in the legs above/below the knee, we will provide some statistics. About 80% of cases associated with numbness of the lower extremities are associated with diseases of the spine and musculoskeletal system.
In second place are problems that are associated with a sedentary lifestyle, as well as pathologies of the circulatory system, diseases of the central nervous system that nourish the legs.
Numbness of the lower extremities most often occurs in people aged 16 to 45 years. That is, this is a working-age population that spends most of its time at work.
Symptoms of numbness in the legs above/below the knee:
Doctors recommend additionally paying attention to how the patient feels, does he have a headache, does his heart hurt, does his temperature rise with numbness, is his blood pressure stable, is there any gastrointestinal disorder? If you can fully describe to the doctor all the unpleasant symptoms that are bothering you, this will speed up the diagnosis.
Of course, the reasons for numbness in the legs above/below the knee may come down to heredity. That is, if your first-degree relatives - mom, dad, sister, brother, as well as grandparents - had problems with the lower extremities, then this is more likely to happen to you too.
Further, a fairly common reason is an unhealthy lifestyle - if a person eats poorly, has a long history of smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages, then all this will definitely affect physical well-being.
The most common causes of numbness in the legs above/below the knee can be:
Treatment of pathologies such as osteochondrosis and intervertebral hernia should occur exclusively under the supervision of a doctor. You cannot help yourself on your own.
If a person has a history of diagnosed diseases such as diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, then their consequence may be the occurrence of neuropathy. With neuropathy, rapid damage to the nerve endings of the lower extremities begins. In such cases, therapy should cover not only the restoration of the sensitivity of nerve fibers, but also the treatment of the underlying disease that led to this pathology.
If numbness of the limbs began in an elderly patient (over 50 years old), then the cause should be sought in a disease such as atherosclerosis. With the acute and progressive development of atherosclerosis, a person experiences symptoms such as: weakness throughout the body, increased fatigue, pain during movement, pain when bending the knee.
With multiple sclerosis (this is damage to the nerve tissues of the spinal cord and brain), an unpleasant symptom such as numbness/stiffness begins to occur. Treatment is carried out in the inpatient department of a medical institution.
There is another reason for numbness in the knees above/below - the little-studied Raynaud's disease. This pathological course is characterized by impaired blood circulation in the lower extremities. A person complains of unpleasant spasms and convulsions in the lower extremities.
Any treatment for numbness of the lower extremities should begin with a visit to a specialist. The therapy for restoring lost sensitivity necessarily includes physical exercise.
Even in old age, it is recommended to pay special attention to the load on the lower limbs. In particular, you can start with walks in the fresh air, swimming, cycling. It is important to promote increased blood circulation using loads on the lower extremities.
Next, you definitely need to exclude coffee/strong tea/alcohol/smoking from your daily life.
The feeling of numbness in the legs, or loss of sensation, is subjective and may be accompanied by tingling, burning, goosebumps and other symptoms. In many cases, numbness is combined with impaired coordination of movements or even with the inability to move if this condition affects both legs at once along their entire length. Many patients note partial numbness of the leg from the knee to the foot or numbness of the leg above the knee, sometimes this unpleasant sensation affects only the foot. The duration of the attack also varies, which can last from several minutes to several hours. In serious situations, patients may complain of almost permanent loss of sensation in the legs below or above the knees.
The appearance of a feeling that the legs are becoming stiff, even for a few minutes and with further complete disappearance, should immediately alert a person. This symptom is never isolated, but indicates some kind of pathology. Therefore, you should not engage in any self-medication, take various medications or carry out local procedures without examination. The sooner a person seeks medical advice, the more opportunities there will be for timely diagnosis of the disease and its treatment.
Unauthorized treatment for numbness of the lower extremities is unacceptable
This is especially necessary if numbness of the leg from the hip or knee to the foot is characterized by the following additional signs and features:
With such complaints, patients usually go to a therapist, who then refers them to a consultation with a neurologist. It is this specialist, after an appropriate examination and examination, who can answer why the leg from hip to knee or from knee to foot is numb, and prescribe competent treatment to the patient.
An examination by a neurologist will help find the cause of the pathology.
The sensitivity of the skin is ensured by complete innervation, or the presence of nerve plexuses and conductors in the tissues of the limbs, and the state of blood circulation. As soon as any of these mechanisms is disrupted, the degree of sensitivity changes.
If the condition of the vessels is such that their patency decreases or compression occurs from the outside, then the muscles and other tissues of the lower extremities begin to receive less oxygen and nutrients. The result of this is the feeling that the legs are numb below the knees or at hip level. Everyone knows an example of such a condition when, during sleep, the legs or arms “go numb” precisely as a result of lack of blood circulation. As soon as the position of the limb changes and thereby restores the patency of the blood vessels, sensitivity also normalizes. But there are also diseases in which the vessels of the legs are affected, which causes the symptom of numbness in the leg from the knee above or below to develop.
Complete innervation of the lower extremities provides not only a normal level of all types of sensitivity. It promotes the functioning of all joints, ligaments, and the musculoskeletal system.
If a failure occurs on any segment of nerve conduction, due to injuries or diseases affecting the nerves, then various pathological conditions develop. They can manifest themselves in a variety of symptoms, and among them there is almost always a loss of sensation when the left or right leg goes numb.
There are several diseases that can explain why legs below or above the knees go numb. Here are some of the most common ones:
No person over 50 years of age is immune from manifestations of osteochondrosis. Degenerative-dystrophic changes in the cartilage tissue of the intervertebral discs inevitably begin. This factor may be accompanied by heavy physical activity or, on the contrary, a sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition, and bad habits. But the degree of pathological changes in the spine also varies from person to person. In some, the pathology can stop in the early stages as a result of adequate treatment, while in others it can quickly progress, with the formation of severe complications.
Pinching of the spinal nerve leads to characteristic clinical symptoms
Such serious consequences of osteochondrosis include protrusions and herniations of intervertebral discs, spondylolisthesis, and obstruction of the spinal canal. All these pathologies in their clinical picture have the symptom of numbness of the knee to the foot or thigh. In the case of a spinal hernia, when the fibrous ring of the cartilaginous intervertebral disc ruptures and the core extends beyond the spinal column, pinching of the nerve roots that extend from the spinal cord inevitably occurs. Often the manifestation occurs brightly, with a pronounced clinical picture. The patient begins to feel that his lower back hurts very much, which is why he is forced to take a certain position. At the same time, he begins to feel that his leg is numb (on the affected side, that is, where the nerve is pinched), and various paresthesias have appeared (burning or cold, crawling “goosebumps”). In addition, the possibility of physical activity is sharply reduced.
The exit of the cartilaginous core may occur not towards the nerve roots, but into the lumen of the spinal canal. Irritation of the meninges by a foreign body necessarily leads to the development of pain and sensory disturbances in the extremities, usually on both sides. A similar mechanism for the formation of a feeling of numbness is observed in other pathologies of the spine.
These diseases must be treated urgently by hospitalizing the patient in the appropriate department of the hospital. The complex prescription of painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, hormonal drugs, muscle relaxants and drugs that improve blood circulation helps to relieve an acute condition. Then the issue of surgical intervention or continuation of long-term conservative therapy is decided individually.
Diseases of the blood vessels of the lower extremities, in which the legs above and below the knee joint hurt and become stiff, are also quite common in clinical practice. These can be injuries, location anomalies, inflammatory or somatic pathologies (neoplastic growths), which result in insufficient blood supply to the lower extremities.
With diabetic neuropathy, along with loss of sensitivity, tissue metabolism and regeneration deteriorate
An example of such conditions is obliterating endarteritis, which occurs mainly in men with many years of smoking experience (an autoimmune mechanism of pathology cannot be excluded). With this chronic disease, the arterial vessels of the lower extremities gradually become obliterated, that is, their lumen is blocked by overlays of connective tissue. As a result of a constant lack of oxygen and nutrients, motor activity is impaired, characteristic intermittent claudication appears, the sensitivity of the lower extremities is significantly reduced, and the skin becomes pale and cold. Due to the obliteration of blood vessels, the pulse weakens; in the later stages, it is not detected at all. Patients complain of severe heaviness in the legs, paresthesia and pain when moving; The numbness goes away with rest.
Another common disease that occurs with sensory disturbances in the legs is diabetes mellitus, or rather, its complication called neuropathy. It is characterized by the destruction of nerve fibers and deterioration of blood circulation, which leads to the impossibility of normal innervation of tissues, metabolism in them and full regeneration. As a result, a patient with diabetic neuropathy complains that his legs are numb, a feeling of heat or cold appears in them, and “goosebumps” are running around. The same symptoms are observed in other diseases that affect the nerve plexuses or trunks (multiple sclerosis, neuritis, polyneuritis, as well as tunnel syndromes localized in the groin, knee or ankle joints).
In addition, similar symptoms of numbness of the lower extremities, with different localization and intensity, can occur with transient ischemic attacks, alcoholism, lack of vitamins and microelements, arthritis of infectious or autoimmune origin (rheumatoid arthritis). In any case, the first thing to do when an alarming symptom of numbness appears is to seek help from a specialist and undergo an examination.
Quite often, many people ask the question: why do their legs go numb below the knees? Moreover, not only older people, but also young people complain about such discomfort. Numbness can appear on both the right and left legs. Anyone who has such problems should consult a doctor to find out the cause of the disease and prescribe treatment. There are many reasons and without proper diagnosis it is quite difficult to choose effective treatment.
The causes of shin pain can be different.
The main reason that leads to numbness of the limbs is problems with the spine. Human diseases and an unhealthy lifestyle can also cause discomfort. The most common causes of discomfort in the lower leg are as follows:
Most often, discomfort in the area of the right leg indicates neuropathy of the sciatic nerve on the right side as a result of an intervertebral hernia.
Symptoms become worse when sitting or walking. It happens that a person can wake up in the middle of the night from severe numbness of the lower leg from the knee to the foot, and an attempt to straighten the lower limb is accompanied by cramps. When raising the right leg up in a level position, the symptoms intensify, and acute pain may appear under the knee or in the lower back.
The left shin also goes numb quite often. This happens if the intervertebral disc pops out to the left side as a result of a herniation.
It is important to pay attention, especially in older people, to numbness of the leg with the simultaneous absence of pain. This condition may be a harbinger of a stroke, micro-stroke or transient ischemic state of the brain. Therefore, you need to immediately consult a doctor.
The main complaints that concern patients:
You need to understand that you cannot treat symptoms and a single nerve, but you need to accurately establish a diagnosis and engage in comprehensive treatment. And an experienced doctor will help you with this, so only he can tell you what to do.
There are also many fairly common and simple methods for eliminating an unpleasant condition. And the most effective are the following:
Exercising significantly improves your condition
If you follow all the recommendations, the pain will almost completely go away and you can stop the deterioration of the condition. But the longer a patient endures discomfort in his legs, the more likely he will have to seek neurosurgical help and the higher the likelihood of irreversible health consequences. In rare cases, muscle paresis may develop and the area of numbness may increase. The lower limb atrophies and gait disturbance occurs.
Numbness of the limbs is a sharp decrease in their sensitivity. Most often, it is the area of the legs below the knee that goes numb. This often results in a tingling sensation and joint pain. Serious problems with the spine can be suspected if a person has both legs going numb at the same time. It is necessary to consult a doctor as soon as possible if such a symptom occurs. Only a specialist can accurately determine the causes of unpleasant sensations.
In 8 out of 10 cases, it is spinal pathologies that cause numbness in the limbs. If a person leads a sedentary lifestyle, then numbness in the legs may be associated with diseases of the blood vessels and nervous system.
Folk remedies against numbness include garlic tinctures, honey compresses, rubbing the feet with fat mixed with sugar, as well as compresses with alcohol tincture of lilac
In addition to the tingling sensation, numbness may be accompanied by other unpleasant sensations:
Numbness in the legs is not an autonomous disease, but a manifestation of other pathologies.
The feeling of numbness below the knee joint can be caused by numerous reasons, which can be acquired or hereditary. Bad habits, a sedentary lifestyle and chronic illnesses can cause an unpleasant feeling of numbness.
The most common reasons include the following:
If your right leg is numb, there is no reason for special concern. You just need to see a doctor as soon as possible to clarify the diagnosis. If numbness occurs in the left leg, and there is no pain, then this may be a sign of a stroke or transitory brain damage, so you need to see a doctor urgently - it is best to call an ambulance.
To determine the exact cause, the doctor usually prescribes an ultrasound and MRI of the spine.
These research methods, as a rule, provide comprehensive information on the basis of which a specialist can make an accurate diagnosis and determine why the legs and feet are numb, and also advise what to do in this case.
Treatment of numbness of the extremities is prescribed only after diagnosis. The main treatment is prescribed only by a doctor based on its results. But there are some methods that will allow you to independently reduce discomfort in your legs. These include:
Strengthening the immune system and maintaining the overall tone of the body will greatly help get rid of numbness in the legs or prevent it. Following the rules of a healthy lifestyle and giving up bad habits will contribute to treatment. However, it is very important to consult a doctor to make an accurate diagnosis and draw up a basic treatment plan, since many diseases that cause numbness in the legs below the knees can cause serious complications.
When the skin on the leg in the thigh area becomes numb, few people begin to sound the alarm unless such a symptom is accompanied by other negative symptoms. Of course, there are cases when the reasons why the right or left leg goes numb are not of pathological origin, but are associated, for example, with prolonged stay in a static position. But in most cases, with long-term or frequently recurring numbness, the causes do not lie on the surface, and it is worth thinking about finding the true source of the problem.
Up to 70% of patient complaints relate to the concentration of the problem in the area of the outer thigh . But periodically, numbness can cover any area above the knee, spread to the back of the thigh, and also be accompanied by painful sensations that affect the lower back, perineum, buttocks, groin or lower abdomen. In most cases, doctors associate the causes of numbness in the leg with being overweight.
Also, such trouble is provoked by wearing shapewear, bandages or tight clothing. People who spend a long time in a monotonous static position experience short-term loss of skin sensitivity when only the right or left leg goes numb. Such numbness does not require specific treatment, but goes away on its own after eliminating the cause that provoked it.
Quite often, women's legs above the knee go numb during pregnancy . This is explained by dramatic hormonal changes in the body and increased stress on joints and legs, plus changes in the location and condition of ligamentous and bone structures that provoke compression of nerve endings, which is associated with preparation for childbirth. However, there are also more serious reasons that cause unpleasant sensations, when the legs not only periodically go numb above the knee, but also an unpleasant burning sensation, goosebumps, itching, and soreness occur against the background of loss of sensitivity.
Nerve damage in Roth's disease
There are many reasons why the skin above the knee goes numb. And finding out the true origin will only be possible with the help of doctors.
The disease is associated with degenerative processes that affect all structures of the spine. First of all, pathological changes occur in the intervertebral discs, as well as in cartilage tissues. In this case, subsidence of the discs, the appearance of protrusions or hernias, plus the formation of osteophytes are observed. Such symptoms provoke radicular syndromes and, as a result, a number of painful and unpleasant symptoms.
If, at the beginning of the pathological process, patients are bothered by lumbar pain, then with progress, radiating pain and the appearance of numbness in the hip area may occur. The lack of adequate treatment can lead to irreversible processes, when not only the sensitivity of the skin, but also the motor abilities of the legs are completely lost.
Video - Causes of numbness in the legs
With diabetes, a number of physiological changes involuntarily occur in the body, causing quite serious concomitant diseases. Quite often, diabetics encounter various types of neuropathies. This pathology is associated with systemic damage to nerve fibers, causing various painful and neurogenic reactions.
Diabetes is a chronic pathology that requires systemic treatment. You can avoid such complications by carefully monitoring your sugar levels.
This disease refers to compression neuropathy associated with pinching of the femoral nerve. Processes can occur both in the groin area and in the knee area. This nerve is responsible for the functionality of the leg as well as sensation in the hip. With such a pathology, which can be caused by injuries or surgical interventions, not only the thigh area becomes numb, but also muscle tissue weakness occurs, and sometimes problems with the motor activity of the knee.
This disease, which occurs in the lower extremities, affects the arteries. Subsequently, trophic tissues develop in the vessels
changes accompanied by impaired blood flow.
With this disease, patients experience pain during movement, which in turn causes lameness, fatigue and stiffness in movement. In addition, patients experience cramps and numbness in the affected areas of the leg. Getting rid of the complications of atherosclerosis is quite problematic. Therefore, doctors try to relieve discomfort and prevent the development of pathology.
With sclerosis, irreversible processes occur in the brain, which are actually associated with the hardening of the tissues of a certain area. In this case, there is a clear deterioration in the transmission of nerve impulses. Depending on the area covered by sclerosis and the degree of tissue damage, completely different signs of the disease may be observed. It is characterized by numbness not only of the thigh or leg, but also of the arms and other parts of the body.
In addition, the progress of the disease can provoke complete or partial paralysis. Patients sometimes experience problems with speech and coordination of movements.
Treatment of sclerosis is carried out on a regular basis using interval techniques. Medicines are selected only on an individual basis. It is not possible to select a unique course of therapy for hip numbness. Because in each case you will have to start from why your leg is going numb.
When the skin of the thigh of one or the other limb becomes numb, a loss of sensation occurs from the groin area to the knee. Symptoms appear after prolonged sitting, walking or sleeping. Most often, the front part of the thigh goes numb, less often – the inner, outer and back surfaces. Basically, the pain radiates to the lower back, groin or buttocks, which indicates damage to the nerve roots in the area where they exit the spine.
Why does femoral paresthesia occur?
For an accurate diagnosis, MRI of the lumbar region, CT, and X-ray of the spine are prescribed. With such diseases, symptoms intensify when moving, when walking, when putting stress on the legs and back (lying, sitting).
Such a diagnosis will allow us to exclude those diseases that cause the same symptoms.
Numbness may occur when walking
Numbness in the left or right area does not indicate a clear cause of the disease, since it is more likely that problems arise on both sides. The exception is athletes (they often have numbness in their right limb), who have additional load on one side.
Patients often say that initially their right and then left areas were numb, but vascular disorders can form on either side and move without problems.
With Bernhardt-Roth syndrome, the body occurs closer to the upper part of the thigh, which causes compression of the neurovascular outlet in the canal, which causes peresthesia and analgesia. If you bring the bent leg towards the stomach, you will experience a feeling of a foreign body in the groin area, and the pain intensifies.
The outer and posterior surface becomes numb in case of sciatic nerve disease, intervertebral hernia, radiculopathy of the lumbar roots. In this case, pain in the buttock may occur, and the symptoms intensify when raising the straight limb upward.
Why does the inner thigh region suffer from the disease less often? Because the sacral roots, which are responsible for this area, are less likely to be damaged. At the same time, it is necessary to exclude concomitant diseases of gynecology (in women), urology, and proctology.
In many patients, the thigh goes numb while walking, a crawling sensation occurs, and the person begins to limp. With such a load, all parts of the limb and the cardiovascular system work. In case of diseases of the spine, loss of sensitivity will be accompanied by discomfort in the back, intensify when the leg is stretched, and may radiate to the heel area, below or above the knee.
To treat sensitivity, it is necessary to establish a correct diagnosis. A positive result will be obtained if the patient consults a specialist in a timely manner. If you do not seek help in time, and the numbness continues continuously for several months, then atrophy of the nerve root is possible, and the lack of sensitivity may remain for life. Without treatment, symptoms worsen, pain becomes more intense, and the leg becomes weaker. Because of this, a limp appears, a curvature of the spine occurs, because the body weight is transferred to a healthy limb, depression occurs.
In case of severe inflammation, the doctor will recommend anti-inflammatory drugs - diclofenac, xevocam, nimesil, etc., B vitamins, and remedies for circulatory problems. Next, you should do therapeutic exercises, which will restore the patient’s lost functions and the affected side. It is important not to start the disease so as not to treat the consequences in the future.