Why is the woman's right leg numb?

Our bodies are complex, and many illnesses can cause physical pain and discomfort. But if you want to confirm the diagnosis, you can only go to the hospital for a detailed examination. If your right leg is numb, it is likely caused by a herniated disc. Maintaining a bad sitting posture for a long time can easily lead to deformation of the spinal bones, thereby compressing the nerves. Therefore, if a woman experiences numbness in her right leg, she can go to an orthopedic department for a check-up.

High-level lumbar disc herniation (L2-3, L3-4) can cause femoral neuralgia, but it is rare in clinical practice, accounting for less than 5%. The vast majority of patients have herniation between L4 and 5, or L5 and S1, and present with sciatica. Typical sciatica is pain that radiates from the lower back to the buttocks, back of the thigh, outer side of the calf to the foot. The pain is aggravated by increased abdominal pressure due to sneezing and coughing. The radiating pain is mostly on one side of the limbs, and only a very small number of patients with central or paracentral nucleus pulposus herniation show symptoms in both lower limbs.

There are three causes of sciatica: ① The ruptured intervertebral disc produces chemical stimulation and autoimmune reactions, causing chemical inflammation of the nerve roots; ② The protruding nucleus pulposus compresses or stretches the inflamed nerve roots, blocking their venous return, further aggravating edema and increasing sensitivity to pain; ③ The compressed nerve roots are ischemic. The above three factors are interrelated and aggravate each other.

The diagnosis of typical cases is generally not difficult, combining medical history, physical examination and imaging examinations, especially today when CT and magnetic resonance imaging techniques are widely used. If there are only CT and MRI manifestations but no clinical symptoms, this disease should not be diagnosed.

Most patients with lumbar disc herniation can be relieved or cured through non-surgical treatment. The treatment principle is not to restore the degenerated and protruding intervertebral disc tissue to its original position, but to change the relative position of the intervertebral disc tissue and the compressed nerve root or partially retract it, thereby reducing the pressure on the nerve root, loosening the adhesion of the nerve root, eliminating the inflammation of the nerve root, and thus alleviating the symptoms. Non-surgical treatment is mainly suitable for: 1. young patients, first-time patients or patients with a short course of illness; 2. patients with mild symptoms that can be relieved by themselves after rest; 3. patients with no obvious spinal stenosis on imaging examination.