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Meralgia Paresthetica
A condition in which a person experiences numbness, pain, or a feeling as if it is burning on your outer thigh is called Meralgia Paresthetica. The other name of Meralgia Paresthetica is Bernhardt-Roth syndrome. This disease generally occurs when there is too much pressure on the nerves of one of the legs, especially on the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN).
However, in the advent of medical sciences, there are some medications and surgeries that one can define as the simplest ways to treat Meralgia Paresthetica.
If you follow the appropriate treatment, then you can lower the risk of symptoms of Meralgia Paresthetica and get back to normal with time.
Facts On Meralgia Paresthetica
There are some points that you must know about the disease if you are going through it. Reading these pointers will assist you in introspecting your disease in a better way. Have a tour through them:
Physical Disabilities
- People having this disease might catch sensitivity towards the contact of the infected region of the body with something. The infected area feels like burning, which is very painful to handle.
- You might have to undergo a surgical intervention if the situation worsens with time. You cannot delay the treatment as the pain is severe and might spread to the hip and groin regions as time passes by.
Treatment
- Doctors diagnose Meralgia Parasthetica with the method of pain research using some imaging tests. The doctors try to fasten up the process so that the person gets appropriate treatment and oral medication for recovery.
- In the worst cases, if the patient does not get timely treatment from the doctors, the disease may lead to damage in the nervous system in the infected part.
- The treatment of this disease aims to reverse the process of nerve damage and diluting the effect of debilitating conditions.
Prognosis of Meralgia Paresthetica
- It is an easy process to diagnose the disease, which implies that it has a good prognosis. Various cases accommodate people who can move towards the recovery path using home remedies (as you will see in the upcoming section of the article).
- The worst ones need assistance from the doctor. This might land up to conventional surgeries that are unsafe and do not ensure recovery to the patient.
- The mild cases can take help from oral medication and therapies.
Moreover, these are a few points that you need to keep in mind if there is any case of Meralgia Paresthetica, that you are observing in your family or loved ones.
Signs And Symptoms
These are the prevalent signs and symptoms that are observed in a person having Meralgia Paresthetica. Have a look at the mentioned points:
- The feeling of extensive pain in the outer region of the thigh
- Tingling and numbness on the leg whose nerves are being pressured upon.
- Burning in the outside region of the eye.
- Holding high sensitivity towards heat.
- Feeling pressure on the foot accompanied the feeling of extensive pain after walking or even standing still for some time.
The disease can show light/mild symptoms in the beginning but if it is not diagnosed in a limited time, then the situation can get worse. At the same time, shooting pain may occur in the leg, disappear, and come back again for no reason.
Causes of Meralgia Paresthetica
Nerves act like messengers that carry messages to the brain. Every human being has got a special set of nerves, which we call sensory nerves. The nerves function together to optimize the functioning of the body accordingly.
Moreover, if somebody is diagnosed with Meralgia Paresthetica, the most effective nerve working in the thigh does not get enough space to function through hip bones as well as the joints.
Here is a list of various causes and risk factors that can be responsible for a person having Meralgia Paresthetica. Take a tour through the given points to know about the causes and risk factors of the disease:
- The body starts gaining weight absurdly and generally ends up causing obesity.
- When a person wears extremely tightened clothes for a long time that include stockings, belts, pants, etc., it causes tension on the skin and ultimately becomes a big symptom of the disease.
- Some injuries might have occurred during car accidents due to seat belts. It can be a leading cause of the disease.
- This can also be observed in people who wear heavy objects on their waists, like guns and other tools.
- Diabetes can also be a leading cause of Meralgia Paresthetica as it damages the nerves gradually.
These are some prevalent causes of Meralgia Paresthetica. The situation gets even more serious when the person is overweight or pregnant. The symptoms show severity with the growing age.
There are cases in which the person has different lengths of legs. The situation of Meralgia Paresthetica is worst for them.
Diagnosis of Meralgia Paresthetica
The doctor will always suggest you have a physical examination for the diagnosis of Meralgia Paresthetica. He will touch the infected part and will try to examine the same accordingly.
He will try to make some movements with your leg too to get an idea about neurological abnormalities. Also, he will consider the past medical history so that he can diagnose and examine the condition accordingly.
Here is a list of some medical tests that a doctor suggests the patient undergo so that a clear picture of the disability comes forward. Refer to the list of tests given below:
Imaging Tests
In the imaging tests, a doctor may have to take a picture to have a look inside the hip region of the pelvic area. This will help him diagnose the root cause of the disease. This also enables them to check for any other disease dwelling inside. These tests include X-rays, MRI, CT-Scan, and many more.
Electromyography
This is a physical test that helps the doctor to diagnose Meralgia Paresthetica. In this test, a doctor monitors the electrical activity of your muscles in the leg region. He uses a thin needle electrode for the same. If, in case you are diagnosed with the disease, the test will be normal. This test is helpful to reveal the other causes of pain in your thigh or pelvic region.
Nerve Conduction Test
In this test, the doctors or lab assistants apply electrode patches on your skin.
This test is like a string operation for the nerves as the doctor tries to map the functioning of the nerves that have a direct impact on the operation by muscles.
Nerve Blockade
In this process, the patient has to get injected with a dose of Anesthesia into the thigh. to do this, the doctor chooses a point where your LFCN is supposed to be compressed. If there are any signs of Meralgia Paresthetica, the pain will disappear gradually.
Blood Tests
To check for the signs and symptoms of diabetes, the doctor may tell you to get a blood test done. If there are any such signs of diabetes, hormonal disbalance, vitamin imperfections, anemia, or even lead exposure; the treatment will relatively be different from the other conditions.
Sometimes, the symptoms of Meralgia Paresthetica replicate with that of other problems in your hip, groin, or pelvic region. Help your doctor by telling him the problem in an elaborated manner. This is a time where you need to keep patience and co-operate with your doctor.
Treatment of Meralgia Paresthetica
The ultimate aim of moving ahead with the treatment is to put some relief on the nerve that is being targetted by Meralgia Paresthetica.
There are a lot of methods using which you can move forward with the treatment and accelerate nerve recovery. You can find some of those methods in the given points.
Amendments In Lifestyle
If you mild signs of Meralgia Paresthetica, the doctor will suggest you add the following things to your lifestyle:
- Apply heat pads, and ice compression on the infected area
- Add pain killers like aspirin, acetaminophen, naproxen, or ibuprofen to the routine for a few days.
- Try to do manageable exercises so that you lose weight and the recovery gets faster.
- Wear loosely fitted clothes, especially the clothing that covers your front hip area.
Physical Therapy
This is one of the best methods that you can do on your own or by taking some help from a physical therapist. You can do this by practicing some exercises that help in stretching and strengthening the infected nerves of your hips and pelvic region.
Yoga is also one of the best possible methods that you can use as physical therapy. You can also try phonophoresis, which uses the method of ultrasound so that your body absorbs all the given medication through your skin.
One more method is transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). This method is useful in delivering electrical impulses with the help of pads that the therapist will apply to the skin to block the pain.
Oral Medications For Meralgia Paresthetica
If you are experiencing severe symptoms of Meralgia Paresthetica, then you can follow the given medication:
- Medicinal dosage of corticosteroid as your doctor prescribes. This will help you to reduce the swelling.
- To relieve the nerve pain, you can also have Tricyclic antidepressants.
- Some medications that work against nerve pain are gabapentin, phenytoin, or pregabalin.
Make sure that you take all the medicines after the doctor prescribes them to you. Also, make sure that you do not end up making your body habitual of the oral medications and consume them only when there is a severe need for them.
This is everything that you need to know about Meralgia Paresthetica. Every case is a unique one. Only your doctor can suggest you the methods to get of the problem in such a way that it never comes to you ever again.
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