Causes and treatments of thigh muscle atrophy

Thigh muscle atrophy refers to the symptom that the muscles in the thigh area begin to atrophy. This symptom is generally caused by diseases such as femoral head necrosis. Although thigh muscle atrophy will not have a great impact on people in the early stages, if it is not taken seriously and not treated for a long time, it will greatly affect the patient's physical health and even cause the patient to be unable to walk normally. Next, I will introduce to you the causes and treatments of thigh muscle atrophy.

1. What is thigh muscle atrophy

It is common for patients with femoral head necrosis to experience thigh muscle atrophy. The severity of muscle atrophy varies. Most patients with femoral head necrosis can recover from thigh muscle atrophy, but a few patients cannot recover from thigh muscle atrophy throughout their lives, which seriously affects the patients' walking distance and quality of life. 100% of patients with mid-to-late stage femoral head necrosis have varying degrees of thigh muscle atrophy in the affected limb, which has a great impact on the walking of patients with femoral head necrosis, directly limiting the recovery of strength in the affected thigh, and also limiting the length of patients' walking.

2. Causes of symptoms

The first cause of thigh muscle atrophy is the reduced blood supply to the thigh in patients with femoral head necrosis. Although the causes of femoral head necrosis are different, the pathogenesis is due to blood circulation disorder around the femoral head. Blood circulation disorders can not only cause femoral head necrosis, but also result in insufficient blood supply from the femoral artery to the extensive tissues of the lower limbs. When the blood supply to the lower limb muscles is reduced, the thigh muscles will be malnourished for a long time, which will cause lower limb muscle atrophy. Another reason is that the affected thigh does not walk or bear weight regularly due to pain, and the muscles do not get effective exercise for a long time, so the muscles no longer develop, gradually atrophy and become smaller, causing disuse muscle atrophy.

3. Diagnosis and Treatment

In the early and middle stages of femoral head necrosis, the shape of the femoral head is not greatly damaged. After repair, the shape of the femoral head is basically normal. The femoral head does not affect the walking function, and the patient's walking distance will not be affected in the future. At the same time, the blood circulation damage in the early stage of femoral head necrosis is not serious and can be recovered through treatment. The blood supply to the lower limbs is not affected, and the femoral artery can fully meet the blood circulation of the lower limbs. In this way, lower limb muscle atrophy can be recovered through exercise.

The situation is different in the middle and late stages of femoral head necrosis. The femoral head collapses severely, the femoral head shape cannot be restored, the hip joint function cannot be restored, the walking distance cannot reach normal, the blood vessels around the femoral head partially disappear and cannot be restored for life, the blood circulation in the lower limbs cannot meet the needs of muscle development, and the muscles cannot develop normally under the condition of lack of blood nutrition. Therefore, the lower limb muscle atrophy of some patients with femoral head necrosis cannot be restored.

Muscular atrophy refers to skeletal muscle dystrophy, in which muscles are smaller than normal and muscle fibers become thinner or even disappear. Neuromuscular hypertrophy. In addition to pathological changes in muscle tissue itself, muscle nutritional status is also closely related to the nervous system. Spinal cord disease often leads to muscular dystrophy and muscle atrophy.

Patients with osteoarthritis of the knee may have the following signs: atrophy of muscles around the joint, especially atrophy of the quadriceps femoris in the thigh may appear early and be more obvious; joint swelling, fluid accumulation in the joint cavity, positive floating patella test; tenderness at the attachment of the joint capsule around the knee joint, such as the upper edge of the tibia; squeezing pain when pressing the patella; in severe cases, flexion deformity of the knee joint may occur, knee flexion and extension movements are limited, and there is a squeaking sound in the joint during movement.

For femoral head necrosis, early detection and early treatment are necessary to prevent the late stage of femoral head necrosis from causing symptoms of femoral head collapse and muscle atrophy.