Left Sided Leg Swelling

[capnmorgan]

Dr. Steve
I have a swelling on my left leg from the knee down including the ankle and foot. The hair on the skin seems to have fallen out. Originally the doctor (dermatologist) told me it was a staph infection. I washed the leg daily with a surgical soap and took an antibiotic. After a month I went to my pcp who informed me it was adema. I was on labetatol and they placed me on a different blood pressure medication where the side effects do not have the side effect of adema. I can give you the actual medication name later. the leg is still swollen (it went down some) anything else you might reccomend.
Later we can talk about prolapsed hemorrhoids :laugh:
-Morgan O
Long Island NY

[Dr Steve]

Dr. Steve
I have a swelling on my left leg from the knee down including the ankle and foot. The hair on the skin seems to have fallen out. Originally the doctor (dermatologist) told me it was a staph infection. I washed the leg daily with a surgical soap and took an antibiotic. After a month I went to my pcp who informed me it was adema. I was on labetatol and they placed me on a different blood pressure medication where the side effects do not have the side effect of adema. I can give you the actual medication name later. the leg is still swollen (it went down some) anything else you might reccomend.
Later we can talk about prolapsed hemorrhoids :laugh:
-Morgan O
Long Island NY

hmmmm...the prolapsed hemorrhoid question might be easier to answer. :-)

Edema of only one leg should be relatively easy to diagnose. So called "unilateral edema" (uni=one, lateral=side) can be caused by a blood clot in a major vein, trauma, blockage of the lymphatic drainage, or from arterial compression of the vein (due to a normal anatomical phenomenon...more on this in a minute). If it keeps up after changing your medicine, your PCP will probably order an ultrasound (doppler) study of the leg to see what's what.

Most things like fluid overload, leaky veins, and scary stuff like heart failure affect the whole body and cause BI-lateral (bi=two) edema of the lower extremities.

Now...one totally benign thing that can cause left leg edema is related to the anatomy of the circulatory system going to the legs. A little background: arteries are round, muscular vessels that resist compression. Veins are thin, easly compressed vessels. Arteries carry blood away from the heart, veins take blood back to the heart.

In this case, the RIGHT iliac artery lies over the LEFT iliac vein, compressing it. Blood can flow into the left leg easily through the left iliac artery, but the outflow is reduced due to the compression of the left vein. Therefore the pressure builds up in the leg and edema occurs. Compression hose is the best treatment for this kind of edema.

http://www.fvleiden.org/images/q71.jpg

Let us know what the PCP says, and good luck!


your pal,


steve

[JimBeam]

Not sure if that's what happened to my dad but he wound up w/ some pain in his calf which being an old school guy he kinda blew off as nothing.

Well one day the pain got worse and he went to the hospital to get it looked at.

What had happened was the blood was able to travel down his leg but there was some kind bloackage on the other side bringing the blood back up so his muscle was decaying.

They tried blood thinners and eventually a bypass but the damage by that time was too much so they ened up having to amputate above the knee.

Now whenever I hear anybody complain about having leg pain I suggest they get it looked at as soon as possible.

[nervous nelly]

Dr. Steve
I have a swelling on my left leg from the knee down including the ankle and foot. The hair on the skin seems to have fallen out. Originally the doctor (dermatologist) told me it was a staph infection. I washed the leg daily with a surgical soap and took an antibiotic. After a month I went to my pcp who informed me it was adema. I was on labetatol and they placed me on a different blood pressure medication where the side effects do not have the side effect of adema. I can give you the actual medication name later. the leg is still swollen (it went down some) anything else you might reccomend.
Later we can talk about prolapsed hemorrhoids :laugh:
-Morgan O
Long Island NY

that sounds horrible, you should hae the leg removed before it spreads

[Dr Steve]

The hair on the skin seems to have fallen out.

by the way, this could happen because the skin is so stretched that the capillaries feeding the hair follicles can't get blood, or because there is an obstruction of the arterial supply of the leg; either way it bears further investigation by your PCP.