Leg Swelling: Ultrasound and DVT Warning Signs

…and then what happens is that you've got gravity acting on your legs, and that causes pressure and fluid to pool, and that causes leg swelling. It's actually surprisingly common, and it's very different from that very generic term, water retention.

Now, how do we treat it? How do we look at it? Well, as I've been talking about, it's an ultrasound scan, a duplex ultrasound scan, that will look at the anatomy, and that's something that we can do very easily.

When should you really worry? Unilateral leg swelling is always a slightly more sinister sign and should probably get checked out. And the classical thing that I will speak about, and have spoken about before, is when you get a red, hot, swollen calf. That is the medical-student and textbook definition of how a deep vein thrombosis can present, but importantly, not always.

So, leg swelling: the take-home message here is that it's not always water retention. One of the most common causes is venous reflux. […] And so if you have swelling that gets worse at the end of the day, worse after long flights, and improved with compression socks, it may well be…