Sports Med Blog

Pain in the calf after surgery?

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Published on Friday, 16 October 2009 20:54

Written by Anne Moss Rogers

Sometimes pain in the calf muscle is a pulled muscle. However, if you have calf pain and it's tender and swollen, it could be a blood clot. This is highly likely if you've just had orthopedic, gynecologic or heart surgery. But it can happen after almost any surgery. You can have surgery on a wrist and have a clot in your calf. One can also be caused by prolonged sitting such as after a long plane ride. 

It is called thrombophlebitis and the symptoms for a a blood clot in the calf muscle include can include one or more of the following. The first two are the most typical.

• Leg or calf aching
• Leg swelling
• Leg redness
• Calf tenderness
• Sometimes a burning sensation
• Leg pain worsens when you bend the leg
• Leg cramps especially at night
• Discoloration of skin, bluish or whitish
• Warm to the touch
• 30-50% of patients have no complaints at all

If you suspect a clot, call your doctor immediately. They'll do a diagnosis then use a non invasive test like Doppler Ultrasound to confirm the diagnosis.

Clots can also occur other places such as the neck, groin, wrist, arm, thigh to name a few. There are many other conditions with similar symptoms, such as a ruptured Baker's cyst or cellulitis, which can make diagnosing deep vein thrombosis difficult.

No amount of kinesio tape or brace will make the clot go away.  So it's important to look for the right signs and refrain from rubbing or massaging the area and anything else that would threaten to cause it to move.