Thigh Pain

Nerves run throughout your body. Their function is to bring information generated by stimuli to the brain and carry messages from the brain to different body parts for necessary action. Generally, there is sufficient space for the nerves to pass through different body parts including the joints, muscles, and bones, and perform their functions. However, under certain situations like injuries, pressure or swelling, the openings for the nerves get squeezed. This leads to nerve compression. In the legs, it is mainly the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, one of the largest sensory nerves running through the legs, which gets compressed. This often results in pain, paralysis and other dysfunctions of the legs. This is the basic reason behind thigh pain. There can be various other acute or chronic illnesses that can lead to thigh pain.

Thigh Pain Causes

• Lipoma is a non-cancerous growth of soft tissues. Its occurrence in the thigh causes thigh pain.
• Osteomyelitis or infection of the bone present in the thighs, is one of the common causes of thigh pain. It blocks proper circulation of blood in the thighs. It can be either acute or chronic.
• Bacterial infection of the joints in the hips can cause the pain to radiate into the groin and thigh. This often induces thigh pain when walking.
• Osteoarthritis or inflammation of the joints in the hips can also produce pain in the thighs.
• A cancerous tumor called Ewing's sarcoma, can occur in the middle of the long bone present in the thighs. Mostly, children of 10-15 years of age are the victims. It causes swelling at the tumor location, fever, bruises and thigh pain in children.
• Osteosarcoma, a type of cancer, typically affects the long bones of the body. Thigh bones are among the common places of occurrence. Osteosarcoma causes swelling or redness of the skin and severe thigh pain when sitting, walking or due to any movement.
• Thigh pain during pregnancy is very uncomfortable. It occurs mainly due to the various changes occurring in the body. Such changes include hormonal, structural and circulatory. Many conditions such as edema, round ligament, and symphysis pubis dysfunction can also cause thigh pain during pregnancy.
• A small number of patients may develop thigh pain after hip replacement surgery. The major cause is the implantation of a stiff implant in the hip bone.

An early diagnosis of the thigh pain causes is necessary to prevent any damage of the thigh bone. There are certain symptoms that indicate that your thigh is going through some sort of ailment and needs immediate medical attention.

Thigh Pain Symptoms

• Pain in the outer side of the thigh and knee.
• Pain in the groin area, radiating into the buttocks.
• Burning sensation or numbness in the thighs.
• Swelling along the thighs as the blood rushes to heal the ailment.
• Feeling of stiffness in the thigh muscle.
• Immobility of the thigh due to strain in the thigh muscle.
• Thigh pain when walking and sitting.
• Sharp pain on placing any weight on the thighs.
• General thigh pain at night without a known cause.

Thigh Pain Treatment

Effective medical treatment is available to relieve thigh pain. The treatment largely depends upon the source of pressure as the basic aim of the thigh pain treatment is to remove the cause of compression of the nerves. Physicians generally ask you to stop doing any kind of aggravating activity, lose weight, wear loose clothing and use a tool box in place of a tool belt. He may ask you to attend pain management sessions. In case of severe thigh pain, the physician can administer an injection of a corticosteroid preparation as it reduces the risk of inflammation. In some serious cases, surgery may be required to relieve thigh pain. However, this is a rare possibility. It is always better to consult a physician for necessary medical assistance on time. You can also try some home remedies to alleviate thigh pain.

Home Remedies for Thigh Pain

• Take steam baths and massage your thigh with warm mustard oil at least once a week.
• Wrap the area of pain with a red flannel.
• Take 3-4 drops of cod liver oil daily. It cures all types of leg pain and also removes physical weakness.
• Take the help of yoga to treat thigh pain. Janusandhi, Uttanpadasana and Gomukhasana are some of the highly beneficial yoga exercises for curing thigh pain.
• You can also perform some other light exercises to cure thigh pain. See inner thigh exercises and thigh and butt exercises for more information.

Hope the aforementioned methods help diagnose the cause of the thigh pain, and assist you in taking some relief measures at home, before undergoing medical treatment for the same.