Dr. Aditi Singh answers the question: “Is leg pain after prolonged sitting or standing a concern?”

There are various medical conditions that can cause your symptoms and this should definitely be evaluated by your primary care physician.

But, briefly, some medical conditions that are associated with leg pain due to prolonged sitting or standing include:

• Venous insufficiency or venous disease. The lower extremity veins’ valves are unable to function properly in that they are unable to move blood efficiently from your legs. This causes the blood to remain in the legs and feet which can increase the pressures of the lower extremity veins and can cause pain as well as swelling. There is a wide range of manifestations associated with venous disease, including no symptoms, fullness and swelling of the legs, cramps or pain in the legs while sitting, and pain upon prolonged standing.
• If the leg pain is associated with back pain and a sensation of numbness or tingling of the leg, this could be a sign of disc herniation impinging the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is a large nerve that runs down your lower extremity. The symptom of back pain radiating down to buttock and/or leg is referred to as sciatica.

If you are having such symptoms, it is important for you to be evaluated by a physician so that you are properly diagnosed.

Dr. Aditi Singh is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Las Vegas. She is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 7:33 am and is filed under Internal Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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