Suffering From Obesity. Getting Sharp Pain And Burning Sensation On Upper Thigh. What To Do?

Posted on Thu, 31 Jan 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 Answered on

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Greetings, I am suffering from morbid obesity and thinking of Bariatic Surgery. I have had a back problem since many years. Since the Past few months I cannot Stand for more than 5 minutes at a time. I get a shooting pain and burning in my right side upper thigh and find my right side hip numb. My recent x XXXXXXX revealed the following: 1) L1 Vertebral body shows mild anterior wedging 2) There is Ostephytic lipping of D12/L1 Verterbral body 3) Disc Space between L1/L2 appear reduced. 4) LS Spine Shows Changes of Degenerative Osteoarthritis PLEASE ADVISE ! Thank you.

Answered by Dr. S K Mishra (50 minutes later)

1.Your problems are to some extent related.

2.Overweight aggravates degenerative diseases of spine.

3.Your symptoms are significant.

4.You should consult a spine specialist too and get examined thoroughly. Probably you need MRI spine too.

5.Depending on MRI and clinical findings you may need surgery for both or if findings are not severe enough just go for obesity surgery .

6.REMEMBER IN ANY CASE TREATMENT OF OBESITY IS PRIORITY. EVERY TREATMENT FOR DEGENERATIVE SPINE DISEASES INCLUDING SURGICAL WILL FAIL IF OVERWEIGHT IS NOT TREATED.

Hope I was able to answer your query. Let me know if you have more concerns.

Regards,

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Shanthi.E