Leg Pain Doctor near Westwood, CA

CACVI does not keep a separate office inside Westwood; our vascular specialists see Westwood and UCLA-area patients at our Los Angeles office at 8741 Alden Drive, in the Cedars-Sinai medical district a short drive east across the Westside. We prefer honesty over a marketing address we do not have. All of our vascular diagnostics—the ankle-brachial index and arterial and venous Doppler ultrasound—are performed there. Call 310-652-2744 for directions, parking guidance, and what to bring to your first visit. If mobility is a concern, let our staff know and they can help you plan the trip.

Not necessarily, and that assumption is exactly what leads people to ignore treatable disease. Cramping in the calf, thigh, or buttock that reliably appears after walking a certain distance and eases within minutes of resting is the classic sign of intermittent claudication from peripheral artery disease—reduced blood flow, not simple aging or being out of shape. PAD becomes more common with each decade, and the 2024 ACC/AHA PAD Guideline notes it is widely underdiagnosed. The encouraging news is that it is very manageable when caught early, with risk-factor control, a structured walking program, and, when needed, a minimally invasive procedure. A painless in-office test can settle whether your legs are simply tired or genuinely under-perfused.

Peripheral artery disease means the arteries feeding your legs and feet have narrowed, most often because cholesterol plaque has built up in their walls, the very same process that narrows the heart's arteries. Starved of blood during activity, the leg muscles cramp and ache when you walk. The 2024 ACC/AHA PAD Guideline calls it common and frequently missed, and closely tied to advancing age, diabetes, tobacco use, and hypertension. Untreated, it can move from walking-only cramps to pain even at rest and, in its severe form, to wounds that will not heal and possible amputation. Caught early, though, it responds well to treatment, which is exactly why an older adult with leg symptoms benefits from a quick screening test.

This is a common and important distinction in older adults. Arterial claudication follows a predictable pattern: cramping that comes on after a set walking distance and eases within a few minutes of simply standing still and resting. Leg pain from spinal stenosis—sometimes called pseudoclaudication—behaves differently: it often eases when you lean forward or sit down rather than merely stopping, and it can appear just from standing. Nerve pain from neuropathy tends to be burning, tingling, or numb and is present at rest. Because these overlap and can coexist, we do not rely on the story alone. The ankle-brachial index and ultrasound objectively show whether reduced blood flow is contributing, which guides the right treatment.

The ankle-brachial index is the first and simplest test we use to look for PAD, and it does not hurt at all. With a blood-pressure cuff and a handheld Doppler, we take the pressure at each ankle and set it against the pressure in your arm; a shortfall at the ankle points to an upstream blockage. National ACC/AHA guidance from 2024 recommends the ABI as the starting test whenever leg symptoms or risk factors are present. In our Los Angeles office it is over within minutes, with no dye and no needles, and it yields a hard number we can track over the years. Should it come back low, we follow with arterial ultrasound to locate the narrowing exactly.

The American Diabetes Association recommends a comprehensive foot examination at least once a year for everyone with diabetes, and more often if you already have neuropathy, poor circulation, foot deformity, or a prior ulcer. Between visits, the ADA advises checking your own feet daily. This matters because diabetes damages both nerves and arteries: you may not feel a developing blister while impaired circulation quietly keeps it from healing. We pair the vascular side of that exam—pulses, ABI, and ultrasound when indicated—with practical guidance on footwear and daily foot care, so a small wound never becomes a limb-threatening one. For older Westwood residents with diabetes, this routine surveillance is one of the highest-value things we do.

A few leg situations are genuine emergencies and should never wait for a clinic visit. The most urgent is acute limb ischemia: a leg that suddenly goes cold, pale, numb, or severely painful because its blood supply has been cut off. Vascular specialists remember it by the six P's, pain, pallor, pulselessness, paresthesia, paralysis, and poikilothermia. The window to save the limb is only hours, so the response is to call 911. Treat a fast-spreading, red, hot foot infection and a suddenly swollen, warm, painful calf, which may be a clot, with the same urgency. In Westwood, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center handles these. The gradual leg pain that builds over weeks or months is what we sort out in the office.

Usually it can. Our team treats blocked leg arteries from the inside, entering through a small puncture instead of opening the leg surgically. Depending on what the imaging shows, we may inflate a balloon to widen the narrowed spot, leave a stent to keep it open, or use atherectomy to remove the plaque directly. Performed with light sedation and leaving only a puncture site, these procedures spare older patients the longer, harder recovery of open bypass and often allow a same-day return home. Open surgery is still occasionally the right answer for particular anatomy, and we will say so when it applies, but for many Westwood patients the minimally invasive route restores blood flow and eases symptoms.

Frequently it can, and doing so may save the foot. A wound that refuses to close is often starved of blood; without enough circulation, the tissue lacks the oxygen and nutrients that healing requires, a stage known as chronic limb-threatening ischemia. When we reopen the responsible artery through a minimally invasive procedure, restored flow lets the body, aided by proper wound care, finish the job. Vascular guidelines put revascularization at the center of limb salvage. For Westwood's older and diabetic residents, the key is to assess a stubborn wound's circulation promptly rather than treating only what is visible on the surface, because early action is what most reliably prevents amputation.

Yes. Not all leg pain and swelling is arterial; the venous system—the veins returning blood to the heart—causes its own problems. Chronic venous insufficiency, where the one-way valves in the leg veins weaken, leads to bulging varicose veins, aching and heaviness that worsen with standing, ankle swelling, and over time skin discoloration or venous ulcers near the ankle. Because a Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation reads our ultrasounds, we accurately distinguish arterial from venous disease—essential, since the treatments differ completely. We evaluate and manage venous disease and leg swelling alongside our arterial (PAD) work, so Westwood patients get one diagnosis that accounts for the whole picture rather than a piecemeal answer.

You will usually walk out with a clear picture the same day. We start by talking through your symptoms and history, including diabetes, smoking, and any back or joint problems that can mimic circulation trouble, then examine your legs, feet, skin, and pulses. If blood flow is in question, we perform the ankle-brachial index and, when appropriate, arterial or venous Doppler ultrasound right in the office, both painless and free of dye or needles. We then explain, in everyday language, whether the cause is arterial, venous, nerve-related, or a mix, and how far along it is, followed by a plan ranging from risk-factor control and walking therapy to a minimally invasive procedure. Bring your medications, insurance card, and prior imaging.

Because we practice on an outpatient basis, real emergencies belong at a hospital, and for Westwood that hospital is Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center at 757 Westwood Plaza, right in the neighborhood as a 24/7 emergency and vascular center. Call 911 or go there for a leg that suddenly turns cold, pale, or numb, for a rapidly spreading foot infection, or for a suspected blood clot. The scheduled work, diagnosing and treating PAD and vein disease and watching over a diabetic foot, is what we handle at our nearby office, coordinating with UCLA and wound-care programs whenever a patient needs inpatient treatment so the two settings stay connected.