Leg Pain Treatment Tulsa, OK

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: By designating your pain as local, it means that the source of your discomfort resides in your leg. This pain can stem from a number of things, such as:
  • Fractures
  • Pulled or torn muscles
  • Arthritis
  • Infection
  • Tendinitis
  • Knee or ankle issues
  • Claudication, which is a circulation issue
• Spine: Your lumbar spine, or low 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 out through your legs. This is often tied to:
  • Sciatica
  • Degenerative disc disease
  • Stenosis
  • Herniated disc

Chondromalacia Patella

Degenerative changes cause soft spots or wear-and-tear changes to underside of knee cap (patella).

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 all the way to the foot.

Fibromyalgia

A pain amplification syndrome that affects the processing of pain in the central nervous system and may commonly manifest with pain tender points in the inner legs and gluteal area as well as many points in the upper body.

Knee Bursitis

Swelling of fluid filled sacs around the knee joint 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 of cartilage in the foot, knee, or hip joints can cause arthritic type pain in these areas.

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 like 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 lumbar spine all the way to the foot of each leg. 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.

What are the Types of Leg Pain?

While the answer to this question may seem obvious — pain is pain, after all — the type, location, and occurrence of your leg pain gives 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, gives your doctor the information they need to treat your leg pain.

How is Leg Pain Treated?

At Memorial Pain, 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
• Medial branch blocks
• Discography

Thanks to the wide array of options, your doctor is able to choose an appropriate treatment that best meets your goals. Should your pain resist treatment, rest assured that they work with you until your leg pain is resolved.

If your quality of life is impacted by leg pain, call Memorial Pain (918-200-9944), or schedule a consultation using the online booking tool.

Treatments for Leg Pain in Tulsa, OK

Treatment for leg pain will vary considerably depending upon diagnosis, but may include any of the following:

Physical 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, bracing, taping, exercises, muscle stimulation, low level laser, joint or spinal manipulation or other various treatments may be required.

Pharmacological Intervention

Various types of NSAID’s, nerve pain medications, muscle relaxants or opiate pain medications may be utilized in concert with interventional procedures and/or conservative therapy 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 is utilized to block the reception of leg pain and/or back pain by bombarding the spinal cord with small amounts of electrical current through thin wire leads that are placed into the epidural space overlying the spine. The effect is to replace excruciating leg and/or back pain with pleasant vibration sensations.