Index
With exercise, claudication is a common condition in which pain occurs in the legs.
This pain results from a reduction in blood flow to the leg muscles.
How can I know if I have claudication?
The most common symptom is a pain like cramping in the calf muscles when walking. The muscles of the thighs and hips can also feel pain. If you rest briefly, the pain will disappear, making walking comfortable again.
Tests for claudication
Doctors use the distance you can walk along a flat surface (not up) before the pain starts as an approximate guide to the severity of your condition. The doctors will examine the pulses in the leg to see if they are weaker than usual or absent. To confirm the diagnosis, you can measure blood pressure in the legs when resting and after walking on a treadmill.
The treatment of claudication
The most crucial part of claudication treatment is ensuring your arteries do not get worse. Atherosclerosis affects the arteries of the leg and your heart (heart attacks), and the brain (which can cause strokes). Therefore, this warning could lead to a more severe illness.
If you smoke, you must stop doing it altogether.
Tests for diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), and high cholesterol will also be done. If these diseases cause atherosclerosis, you may have to take a special diet or medication.
If you are overweight, losing weight will help improve the quality of your arteries. To help your arteries, your doctor may advise you to take a small dose of aspirin once a day. Regular exercise is also good for the legs.
Walking will help you.
Walking can be frustrating when you have claudication because of the frequent stops necessary when the legs become painful. However, it is essential to persist and try to walk every day because increasing the distance improves the pain in the legs.
Over three to six months, the leg muscles become more efficient, allowing you to walk more in the limited blood supply. If claudication is still a problem, you will have to have an ultrasound of the leg (use sound waves to see the blood flow) or an angiogram (a type of X-ray with injected contrast) to see exactly where they are narrowing or blockages in the arteries.
Angiographies
Angiograms are performed on an x-ray table, which takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Using a local anesthetic, a needle is placed with a catheter that passes through the groin artery to inject the dye; using the X-ray plate, the dye can be detected, allowing the Doctors to observe where the arteries are blocked or narrowly.
Angioplasty
Doctors can treat some narrowing and blockages in the arteries by using a special balloon to stretch and open the artery again. This operation is called an angioplasty, similar to having an angiogram, except that you feel a slight discomfort while the artery is stretching.
If there is a severe blockage in the artery, angioplasty may not be possible. If the claudication is terrible, a bypass operation will be considered and discussed with you. This will provide a blood supply parallel to the tissues, but it means taking a glass from another part of your body.
