Suggest Treatment For Pain And Swelling In The Left Leg

Posted on Sat, 25 Feb 2017

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

Sat, 25 Feb 2017 Answered on

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : I have CHF, and my right foot and leg is swollen this morning more than twice the size of the left leg. I have not injured it. What should I do and what might be causing this?

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (45 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome on HCM!

I understand your concern and would like to explain that your symptoms could be related to different causes:

- deep vein thrombosis
- a wrong position during sleep
- heart failure (sometimes the leg swelling can be unilateral in heart failure)
- electrolyte imbalance, etc..

Coming to this point, I would recommend consulting with your doctor as soon as possible (or going to the ER) for a physical exam and some tests:

- a cardiac ultrasound to examine your heart function and measure the central venous pressure
- a Doppler ultrasound of the leg vessels to exclude possible deep vein thrombosis
- D-Dimmer levels for deep vein thrombosis
- NT pro-BNP levels for heart failure
- blood electrolytes
- kidney and liver function tests
- fasting glucose.

If evidence of deep vein thrombosis is found on Doppler ultrasound, you would need to start anticoagulation therapy as soon as possible.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar