Leg Pain In Diabetes Mellitus - Signs, Causes And Complications Of Leg Pain In Diabetes Mellitus

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Leg pain with diabetes

Signs, causes and complications of leg pain in diabetes

Diabetes is a very dangerous disease and quite often can cause serious complications on the legs. Approximately 25-35% of people with diabetes develop foot problems during their lifetime. The likelihood of their occurrence increases with age. Diseases of the legs in diabetes bring a lot of trouble to both doctors and patients, but, unfortunately, there is still no simple solution to this problem. If such pain occurs, you should immediately consult a professional doctor, only he can prescribe the correct course of treatment.

The goal of treatment is to relieve leg pain (and ideally eliminate it completely) and to maintain the patient's ability to move around. If you ignore preventive measures and treatment of complications of diabetes on the legs, the patient may experience serious problems, up to the loss of toes or feet. Legs with diabetes mellitus hurt from the fact that, due to atherosclerosis, an excessively narrow lumen remains in the blood vessels. The tissues of the legs do not receive the required amount of blood, as a result of which they send pain signals.

Causes of leg pain in diabetes mellitus

Diabetic foot problems typically occur in two main scenarios:

1. Nerve fibers are affected by chronically elevated blood sugar, as a result of which they cease to conduct impulses. This leads to the fact that the legs lose sensitivity, and this phenomenon is called diabetic neuropathy.

2. The blood vessels supplying the legs become clogged due to the formation of a blood clot (ie, thrombus) or atherosclerosis. Oxygen starvation of tissues (ischemia) begins. In this case, the legs usually hurt.

Signs of impaired blood flow in the legs with diabetes

Especially in old age, you need to carefully examine your feet and legs daily. In case of impaired blood flow through the vessels, external early signs can be noticed. Peripheral artery disease has early stage symptoms:

1. The skin on the legs becomes dry, possibly its peeling combined with itching.

2. Areas of depigmentation or pigmentation may appear on the skin.

3. Hair on the shins in men turns gray and falls out.

4. The skin may become cold to the touch and permanently pale.

5. It may also turn bluish and warm.

Complications in the limbs with diabetes mellitus

Diabetic neuropathy is damage to the nerves due to elevated blood glucose levels. This complication of the disease causes the patient to lose the ability to feel touch on the legs, pressure, pain, cold and heat. Even if he injures his leg, he may not feel it. For many people with diabetes, ulcers develop on the soles of the feet and legs. These ulcers usually take a long time to heal. With weakened sensitivity of the legs, wounds and ulcers do not cause pain.

Even a broken foot or dislocation can be virtually painless. This is called diabetic foot syndrome. Since patients do not feel pain, most of them are too lazy to follow medical recommendations. As a result, harmful bacteria build up in wounds, which can contribute to gangrene and leg amputation.

With reduced permeability of blood vessels, the tissues of the legs begin to experience "hunger" and send pain signals. Pain can only occur when walking or at rest. In a certain sense of the word, it is even good if your legs hurt with diabetes. For a person with diabetes, this is a good incentive to seek professional medical help and strictly adhere to the prescribed course of treatment.

Problems with the blood vessels that feed the legs are called peripheral artery disease. Peripheral meaning - far from the center. With a narrowed lumen in the vessels in diabetes, intermittent claudication begins in many cases. This means that due to severe pain in the legs, the patient has to stop or walk slowly. In the case where peripheral arterial disease is accompanied by diabetic neuropathy, pain may be completely absent or be quite weak.

The combination of pain loss and vascular occlusion greatly increases the likelihood of amputation of one or both legs. Due to "starvation", the tissues of the legs continue to be destroyed, even if the patient does not feel pain.

Diagnostics of the extremities in diabetes mellitus

A physician with experience is able to check the patient's pulse by touch in the arteries feeding the tissues of the legs. This method is considered the most affordable and simplest for detecting peripheral circulatory disorders. But at the same time, the pulsation on the artery is significantly reduced or stops only when its lumen narrows by 90 percent or more. It's too late to prevent tissue starvation. Therefore, with the help of modern medical equipment, more sensitive diagnostic methods are used. To improve the quality of life of a diabetic and relieve pain, doctors may prescribe an operation to restore blood flow in the arteries of the lower extremities.

Article author: Mochalov Pavel Alexandrovich | d. m. n. therapist

Education: Moscow Medical Institute. IM Sechenov, specialty - "General Medicine" in 1991, in 1993 "Occupational Diseases", in 1996 "Therapy".