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Lower Extremity Pain

Pain Management Doctor located in Castro Valley, CA

Lower Extremity Pain

Lower extremity pain in your legs and their joints can severely limit your mobility. If leg, knee, or foot pain disrupts your life, visit Ravi Panjabi, MD, at Advanced Pain Management in Castro Valley, California. Dr. Panjabi and his team carefully assess your lower limbs before creating a personalized treatment plan to relieve your pain. Call Advanced Pain Management to arrange a lower extremity pain evaluation or book today using the online scheduling feature.

What are the lower extremities?

The lower extremities extend from your hips to your feet, including the thighs, knees, shins, and ankles. The upper extremities are your arms, from shoulder to fingers.

Lower extremity pain might be acute (sudden and short-lived) or chronic (long-lasting). Injuries like fractures, joint dislocations, strains, and sprains are common causes of acute lower extremity pain.

What conditions commonly cause chronic lower extremity pain?

Chronic lower extremity pain causes include:

Tendinitis and tendinosis

Tendinitis is inflammation affecting the tendons — lengths of connective tissue attaching muscle to bone. It usually develops from overuse that irritates the tendon fibers. Without treatment, tendinitis can develop into tendinosis, a more serious disorder where the tendon tissues start to break down.

Arthritis

Arthritic conditions cause joint pain, stiffness, and weakness that varies in severity and worsens as you age. Osteoarthritis, a particularly common form, develops when age and decades of use erode the slippery cartilage covering your bone ends inside the joints.

Gout is another form that frequently affects the feet, caused by crystals formed from excess uric acid lodging in the joints.

Plantar fasciitis 

Plantar fasciitis results in intense heel pain caused by tiny tears in the plantar fascia, a fibrous band running under the foot’s arch from heel to toe.

Sciatica

Sciatica is a back problem caused by a pinched sciatic nerve in the lower spine. This nerve travels down both legs, so pain tends to shoot down one or sometimes both. It’s often severe and can affect the hip, buttock, and leg more than the back.

Peripheral neuropathy

Neuropathy affects the nerves, causing pain and other unpleasant sensations. In the feet, diabetic peripheral neuropathy is the most common problem, caused by nerve damage resulting from excessive blood sugar.

Bursitis 

Bursitis affects sacs of fluid called bursae that cushion your joints. Repeated movements trigger irritation, inflammation, and pain, especially in the outer hip (trochanteric bursitis).

You could also develop lower extremity pain from a poorly healed injury, such as a meniscus cartilage tear in the knee.

How is lower extremity pain treated?

Treatments the Advanced Pain Management team offers for lower extremity pain include:

  • Physical therapy
  • Pain medication
  • Orthotics
  • Steroid injections
  • Trigger point injections
  • Bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) injections
  • Platelet-rich plasma (PRP)
  • Exosomes and other healing cells

BMAC, PRP, and exosome injections contain cells extracted from your body or a healthy donor that may significantly boost your natural healing abilities.

Call Advanced Pain Management to arrange a lower extremity pain evaluation, or book an appointment online today.