What causes both lower legs to be severely swollen?

Answer 1

Foot, leg, and ankle swelling is common with the following situations:

• Prolonged standing
• Long airplane flights or automobile rides
• Menstrual periods (for some women)
• Pregnancy -- excessive swelling may be a sign of preeclampsia, a serious condition sometimes called toxemia, which includes high blood pressure and swelling
• Being overweight
• Increased age
• Injury or trauma to your ankle or foot

Swollen legs may be a sign of heart failure, kidney failure, or liver failure. In these conditions, there is too much fluid in the body.

Answer 2

There are many many factors that contribute to this and NOBODY will be able to give a valid answer without actually seeing your leg, and running a general diagonistic on yourself. Go see a doctor for an answer to this.

Answer 3

Well, that could be several things. I would think the most likely would be edema. Which is when fluid collects in part of the body. Generally your lymphatic system and circulatory system regulate the amount of fluid in any given part of the body. But, if you are sick, injured or spend a very long time without moving (days or weeks, not hours) you can end up with collected fluid. Pregnant women frequently have this problem with their feet and ankles because they have so much more fluid in their system for the baby, cannot move about as freely and their hearts and lymph nodes can just get overwhelmed. The problem generally goes away after they have the baby. People who are wheelchair dependent or the extremely over-weight can find themselves with swollen lower extremities.

Another possibility would be an allergic reaction to something that the legs came in contact with, like sitting in poison ivy. The skin at the site of contact will swell in response to the histamine the body sends to fight off the allergen. Or, any damage to the skin, like bad sunburn, can cause the skin to swell.

Lastly it could be an infection of some kind.

What makes this interesting, is that a lot of the things that can cause a body part to swell (sprained ankle, bee sting, infected cut) usually affect either a smaller area (one leg, or just the toe, or just the knee) or they affect the entire body (bee stings).) For both legs to be affected but no other body part suggests to me more of an illness scenario than a temporary situation.

Either way, I would go see a doctor to get it checked out. It could be serious, especially if you can't think of a good reason for the swelling (like a sunburn). And really even if you can the swelling could signal complications that could delay or prevent healing.

Best of luck to you!

D

Answer 4

Swelling of lower extremities is called in very old books "dropsy", and is called in modern medicine "edema", or simply "retaining water". It can have a large number of causes, but one of the most common, especially in the elderly, is coronary insufficiency - your heart is not working as hard as it should. But I stress what I said above: It can have a number of different causes. If you have developed it, see your doctor.

Answer 5

I have been walking alot and now my legs are really swolen in the caft area. I have started losing weight and now it seems its all going to my feet.

Answer 6

You could have sprained some part of your leg causing swelling. If the swelling is in the knee, it could be osgood schlatters.

Answer 7

Lower leg pain can be caused by many different things. Torn tendons, sprained muscles, cramps, shin splints and even blood clots can all be causes of lower leg pain.

Answer 8

Hi Siri what does it mean when your feet are swollen