WHY DO OLDER PEOPLE HAVE PAIN IN THEIR LEG?

Your leg is the entire area between your knee and your ankle. A cross section of your leg will show an anterior compartment (front) a lateral compartment (side) and a posterior compartment (back). Pain in each compartment can mean different things whereas pain in the whole cross section can also be caused by different things. It is important to report exactly where the pain is in your leg.

It is not uncommon for an older adult patient to complain of pain, but it is important to ask questions about the location, severity, and duration of the pain. It is easy to dismiss pain in the geriatric population because both the patient and the clinician often feel pain is a normal part of aging.

 

CAUSES

Pain in the legs can occur as a result of conditions that affect bones, joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, nerves, or skin. It can occur at night, while lying down, or while running or exercising. Depending on the cause, leg pain can occur in one leg only or in both legs. Typically, injury or chronic disease can cause of different structures and tissue types, a wide variety of conditions and injuries can cause leg pain.

Diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage from diabetes) is a common cause of tingling, burning, and numbness in the legs that can at times be painful. For diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, it is important to tell your therapist the exact type and location of any pain in the legs. Peripheral artery disease can cause claudication, or pain that occurs in the legs usually when walking or exercising. Blood clots (deep vein thrombosis) can be another cause of leg pain. Pain in the knee and ankle joints of the leg is common with the arthritis conditions. The pain of sciatica (from disc disease of the spine) may radiate down the leg and is another common cause of leg pain. Other causes include:

• Peripheral neuropathies
• Fungal Infections
• Legg-Calvé-Perthes Disease
• Medications
• Nerve Damage From Any Source
• Rupture of Ligaments or Tendons
• Gout
• Synovitis
• Trauma
• Tumors
• Viral Infections like herpes zoster

 

SYMPTOMS

Depending on the cause of the pain, other symptoms, like

• WEAKNESS,
• NUMBNESS,
• THROBBING,
• CRAMPS,
• ACHING, OR
• TINGLING SENSATION,
• BURNING SENSATION

 

 

 

 

TREATMENT PHYSIOTHERAPY OFFERS

EXERCISE THERAPY: exercises designed for leg pain are either for flexibility, strength, to increase tone or to reduced edema and pain. Unless otherwise indicated then medications or medical techniques is needed.

CRYOTHERAPY: cryotherapy/ice therapy may be used to relieve pain or reduce swelling. At prescribed intervals, ice is effective in managing pain in many conditions.

 

HEAT THERAPY (DRY HEAT/MOIST HEAT): the main purpose for heat therapy is to improve circulation, make underlying tissues more pliable and ultimately relieve pain. Your Physiotherapist is likely to recommend heat to you if there is no ongoing swelling.

 

SOFT TISSUE MOBILIZATION/MASSAGE: massage when done together with heat relaxes underlying tissues, clears the tissue of toxic waste causing pain, breaks stiffness and relieves pain. The type of massage your therapist will do for you is less likely to be a full body massage, he/she will pick the segment affected and mobilize the tissues there for required therapeutic effect.

 

ULTRASOUND/SHOCKWAVE: these are two different modalities that work using similar mechanisms. They are used to break adhesions, scar tissue, reduce swelling (ganglionic origin) and relieve pain in joints, ligaments, tendons and pain originating from capsule.

 

TRANSELECTRO MUSCULAR NERVE STIMULATION (TENS): as a commonly used modality your therapist is likely to use TENS for pain relieve and improve muscle strength. Mostly pain arising from muscle and nerve origins.

 

KINESIOTAPING: taping may also be done for pain, swelling, and strengthening. Your therapist may use it to augment the treatment program designed for you.

 

Call Us NOW.  Let us help you.

CALL ESTHER’S PLACE ON 050 572 1405

 

 

REFERENCES

1. https://www.medicinenet.com/leg_pain/symptoms.htm (23/10/2020)
2. https://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/leg-pain/basics/definition/sym-20050784 (30/10/2020)
3. https://www.healthline.com/health/leg-pain (31/10/2020)