Leg Pain Doctor near West Hills, CA

Aging hits leg circulation from two directions. Arteries stiffen and gather plaque over the decades, narrowing the vessels that feed the leg muscles and driving peripheral artery disease; the 2024 ACC/AHA PAD Guideline lists advancing age among the strongest risk factors. At the same time the one-way valves in the leg veins wear out, so blood pools and produces the heaviness, swelling, and varicose veins of venous insufficiency. Add the diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol that build with the years, and it is clear why more older West Hills residents notice leg symptoms — though both problems are treatable when caught early.

It is worth checking rather than assuming, because the treatable answer and the harmless one can feel alike. Peripheral artery disease shows up as claudication: a cramp or ache in the calf or thigh that comes on after walking a predictable distance and eases within minutes of standing still, sometimes with cold feet or a slow-healing sore. Age-related arthritis, by contrast, tends to hurt at rest, in the morning, or over a joint. Because so many older adults blame leg pain on the years, PAD often goes undiagnosed — and a painless ABI can settle it in minutes.

Healing is hungry work: closing a wound takes a steady supply of oxygen, nutrients, and immune cells, all delivered through the arteries. When PAD narrows those arteries, the tissue is starved, so a sore that would mend in a well-supplied foot instead lingers or grows. That is why a non-healing foot wound in an older adult is never only a skin problem — it is a signal to check the blood supply underneath. We assess the circulation with painless testing, and if flow is poor we can often restore it with a minimally invasive procedure, which alongside good wound care frequently turns a stalled wound into a healing one.

Critical limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) is the most advanced stage of PAD, where blood flow is so reduced that the leg aches even at rest — often a deep foot pain at night that eases when the leg hangs down — and tissue starts to break down into non-healing sores. It is serious but not hopeless. Vascular guidelines make revascularization, restoring flow to the foot, the centerpiece of limb salvage, and for many patients that flow can be reopened through a minimally invasive, catheter-based procedure rather than major surgery. Paired with dedicated wound care, restored circulation gives the foot a real chance to heal, and acting early improves the odds of keeping the limb.

Yes, and it is one of the advantages of having a hospital in your own neighborhood. A serious leg or foot wound usually needs two things at once: restored blood flow, which is the vascular side we provide, and skilled wound management — debridement, dressings, offloading, and infection control. When a wound needs that hospital-based care, we coordinate with UCLA West Valley Medical Center right here in West Hills so the two halves reinforce each other. We handle the circulation from our nearby Tarzana office, reopening a blocked artery when imaging shows one, and stay in touch with the wound team — a joined-up approach that gives an older patient a better chance the wound closes.

They are opposite plumbing problems, and telling them apart guides everything after. Chronic venous insufficiency is a return problem: weak vein valves cannot push blood back up the leg, so it pools and causes heaviness, aching, swelling, and varicose veins that worsen with standing and ease with elevation. Peripheral artery disease is a supply problem: plaque narrows the arteries bringing blood into the leg, so the muscles cramp with walking, the feet may feel cold, and sores heal poorly. Many older West Hills patients have some of both. Because the treatments differ, we use ABI and Doppler ultrasound, read by a Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation, to define exactly which you have.

Most varicose veins are more nuisance than danger, but in older adults they deserve evaluation rather than neglect. They are the visible sign of chronic venous insufficiency, and left alone over years the sustained pressure can bring real complications: persistent swelling, brown skin discoloration around the ankle, hardening of the skin, and eventually a slow-healing venous leg ulcer. Superficial clots and bleeding from a bumped vein are less common but possible. The good news is that all of this is treatable. Because a Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation reads our ultrasounds, we can map which veins are leaking and match the response — from compression to a minimally invasive procedure — to your situation.

The workup uses two comfortable, non-invasive tools, both read by a Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation. First is the ankle-brachial index (ABI), the first-line PAD screen endorsed by the 2024 ACC/AHA PAD Guideline: soft cuffs and a Doppler probe compare ankle and arm blood pressures, and a lower ankle reading reveals a narrowed artery. Second is Doppler ultrasound, which watches blood move through the arteries and veins in real time and pinpoints where an artery is blocked or a vein valve leaks. Neither uses needles, dye, or radiation, and neither needs recovery — welcome for older patients — and much of it is finished in a single Tarzana visit.

Often, yes — and for a diabetic ulcer it can be decisive. Diabetes damages both the nerves and the arteries of the foot, so a sore may start unnoticed and then stall because too little blood reaches it to fuel repair. When our testing shows poor arterial flow is holding a diabetic ulcer back, reopening the narrowed artery, usually through a minimally invasive catheter-based procedure, restores the oxygen and nutrients the tissue needs so good wound care can finally succeed. Vascular guidance places this revascularization at the heart of limb salvage. For older diabetic West Hills residents, having the circulation behind a stubborn ulcer checked early is one of the most powerful ways to prevent an amputation.

Certain leg symptoms should send an older adult to the ER without delay. The clearest is a leg that turns suddenly cold, pale, numb, or severely painful, which can mean acute limb ischemia — an abrupt loss of blood supply recognized by the six P's: pain, pallor, pulselessness, paresthesia, paralysis, and poikilothermia (coldness). The artery must be reopened within hours, so call 911 rather than wait. A sudden one-sided swollen, warm, painful calf can be a deep vein thrombosis that may send a clot to the lungs, and a hot, red, fast-spreading foot infection is urgent too, especially with diabetes. UCLA West Valley Medical Center sits right in West Hills for these moments.

In most cases yes, which is especially reassuring for older West Hills patients who also carry a heart condition and want to avoid a major operation. Our interventionalists specialize in endovascular treatment, reopening a blocked leg artery from the inside through a small needle puncture instead of a surgical incision. Depending on the blockage, that may be balloon angioplasty to open the narrowing, a stent to hold it open, or atherectomy to remove plaque. These are typically done under light sedation, leave a puncture rather than a large wound, and place far less stress on the heart than open bypass. Because our physicians are cardiovascular as well as vascular specialists, they weigh your cardiac history in choosing the safest approach.

Moving your vascular care to us is straightforward, and we try to make it easy for older patients juggling several doctors. Call 818-905-5904 and our staff can help request records from your current or previous physicians so we start with your full history. For your first visit, bring a current list of medications and doses, your insurance card and photo ID, any prior vascular test results or imaging, the contact details of your primary and heart doctors, and notes on your symptoms. On coverage, CACVI accepts many major PPO and Medicare plans; call our office to verify your specific coverage before your visit. With records and coverage handled ahead of time, your appointment can focus on your legs.