A 22 year young gentleman walked into my clinic with slight difficulty in walking.

Till i spoke to him ,i thought he had a common easily curable illness.I learnt from him that ,in last 3 months he consulted 2 doctors,one of them a surgeon with no respite.One had treated him empirically and while  the other had referred him to a vascular surgeon,specialist dealing with blood vessels of legs .The vascular surgeon rightly requested a blood vessel study(Doppler ultrasound test)of the leg.I did a detailed examination of veins and arteries of the leg and found them normal.And  radiologists do not stop till they unearth the mystery of diagnosis.I gently interrogated his abdomen with ultrasound.I was not happy with what i found.It was a  dangerous tumour (sarcoma )involving muscles and deep structures of abdomen(retro peritoneum)impeding the fluid flow from leg and hence causing its swelling. Had the radiology scan been performed earlier,delay in diagnosis could have been avoided.

One cannot neglect leg swelling irrespective of the age.Appropriate diagnostic scanning should be carried out in consultation with radiologist.