Been suffering from calf tightness/numb toes/foot for awhile and finally got an answer after CTA - popliteal artery entrapment syndrome. Will be having an MRI/MRA done to determine what is causing problem and then surgery tentatively scheduled for 8/15
Diagnosis surprised me and the doc bc this is apparently a young persons disease and I am 51yr old female. However, I only took up running a few years ago - so that may be why it never troubled me before.
Have done a search of forum and not much here - so, am interested in hearing others experience with this.
What caused entrapment?
If you had surgery, did you make successful return to sport?
Tell me about your surgery & recovery.
How long after surgery were you able to get back to work and then back to activity?
What kinds of questions should I be asking my doc?
What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?
Popliteal entrapment syndrome is an anomaly caused by displacement of the popliteal artery medial to the medial head of the gastrocnemius muscle. This is a congenital anomaly. The symptoms can be exacerbated by hypertrophy (enlargement) of the muscle. Usually presents in young patients. Can lead to aneurysmal degeneration of the artery. Really no good non-surgical options. I have been a Vascular Surgeon for nearly twenty years and have only seen a handful of cases. Sounds like your surgeon is doing appropriate workup.
I trust my surgeon (Ken Cherry at UVA) but wonder about recovery time and if folks have made a successful recovery to running/biking. Can you shed any light on recovery time and success rate?
I suspected PAES from surfing the internets and had to really push to find a doc who would look bc of my age. But I only took up running a few years ago so condition probably existed for a long time but didn’t present until I started training for long course. I was a cyclist and raced bikes before turning to triathlon.
From CTA, calf is compressing artery - when pushing with toes like you toe off in running or walking, the artery is completely compressed by calf to a thread. There is also some stenosis present bc of scarring from long term trauma to vessel so Surgery schruoed to perform bypass and then repair whatever is causing the entrapment. MRI/MRA scheduled for tomorrow to investigate underlying biomechanics/anatomy to shed some light on what is causing the problem.
just bumping this back up to ask you about your srugical experience and how your rehab is going. I am likely about to be diagnosed with the same or similar condition, so any info is welcome for me to learn about this.