What causes pain in the front of the calf?

Pain in the front of the calf may be caused by muscle pain or venous thrombosis. Venous thrombosis is an acute non-suppurative inflammatory disease. It often causes superficial veins to appear in the limbs, or deep veins in the lower limbs, and local swelling and pain are often felt. If this is the case, you must go to the hospital for examination in time and use appropriate methods for treatment to avoid greater harm to your health.

What causes pain in the front of the calf?

In the mid-19th century, RLK Virchow proposed the three elements of deep vein thrombosis - slow venous blood flow, hypercoagulable state of blood and venous intimal damage, which are still recognized by the vascular surgery community. The vast majority of venous thrombosis occurs in the deep veins of the pelvis and lower limbs, which is closely related to the anatomy and function of the lower limb veins: the lower limb veins have more venous valves, and the venous pressure in the lower limbs is much higher than that in other parts of the body when the human body stands or sits. The venous return of the lower limbs depends on the pumping action produced by muscle contraction. Therefore, the venous return of the lower limbs is slower when standing or sitting. Thrombosis often occurs in the venous valve pocket when there is no obvious venous intimal damage. The thrombus is not tightly adhered to the blood vessel wall and is easy to fall off and may cause pulmonary embolism.

70% of the blood flow in the lower limbs returns to the heart through the deep veins, and 30% through the superficial veins (greater saphenous vein and lesser saphenous vein). The superficial veins empty into the deep (femoral) veins at the groin. Therefore, when thrombosis forms in the iliac vein and femoral vein and deep venous blood flow is blocked, the superficial veins will dilate and blood flow will increase to compensate for the deep venous blood flow blockage. As a result, varicose veins of the great saphenous vein and pitting edema of the affected limb occur. If thrombosis forms in the ? vein, there will be obvious tenderness in the calf muscles, and sharp dorsiflexion of the forefoot will induce deep pain in the calf muscles (Homans' sign).

Mitigation methods

After venous thrombosis, if it is confined to the calf veins, the thrombus can gradually become organized and blood flow can be restored. Most cases do not leave any symptoms, while a few spread upward to the femoral vein or iliac femoral vein. Therefore, the process is often gradual and difficult to diagnose in time. It eventually develops into chronic lower limb venous insufficiency, and limb swelling is difficult to subside. Because the deep vein valves are damaged during thrombosis and inflammation, even if the blood flow is restored, the hydrostatic pressure generated by gravity causes cellulose accumulation in the tissue, hardening of the adipose connective tissue, changes in the skin such as stasis dermatitis, and even venous stasis ulcers, resulting in a certain degree of limb disability. In the early stages of deep vein thrombosis in the lower extremities, it is easy to fall off. If the embolus is large and emboluses the left or right pulmonary artery trunk, it may cause a large pulmonary embolism, which is often one of the causes of sudden death. Therefore, it is very important to prevent lower extremity venous thrombosis.