The femoral nerve is the long nerve in the leg that feeds the leg muscles, allowing you to straighten your leg. This nerve also is responsible for feeling in the lower leg and front of the thigh. The tibial nerve affects the calf and foot, while the peroneal nerve is a branch of the sciatica and affects the lower leg. Systemic nerve disorders can affect the nerves overall, or the damage may be localized. Injury is the most common cause of leg nerve damage, but it also can be a result of a tumor, internal bleeding, a compressed spinal column or other disorders that affect the nervous system, such as diabetes. According to the National Institutes of Health, symptoms of leg nerve damage include numbness, weakness or sudden buckling of the knee.
Medication
For many, no major treatment is needed to restore feeling to the leg after an injury. According to the National Institutes of Health, the damaged nerve often repairs itself with little or no assistance other than medication to help patients deal with pain. Pain medication can help patients retain mobility, which helps maintain muscle strength while the nerve recovers. However, patients must be careful about building up a tolerance to pain medication or becoming addicted to pain relievers. Pain medication also will help relieve shooting pain that accompanies the dysfunction. Corticosteroids often are injected to inhibit the swelling and inflammation that often are associated with femoral nerve damage.
Nerve Block
There are a number of methods used to interrupt the messages sent along a dysfunctional nerve. When the source of the damage is easily located, a nerve block can alter the signals to relieve pain while the nerve heals, according to the Pain Clinic. Nerve blocks also can stop pain while surgery is performed so the patient can avoid general anesthesia. Anesthetics can be injected into the nerve or rubbed on the surface of the skin to block the sensations. High-intensity radiofrequencies sometimes are employed to heat up the nerve and decrease pain. Some nerve blocks are short-lived and must be repeated regularly, while other forms of nerve block can last as long as eight weeks.
Chemical Destruction
Neurolysis is a procedure that kills the nerve completely. Ethanol is injected into the nerve once a week for seven consecutive weeks. The nerve is disabled permanently and will not repair itself once subjected to the treatments. The procedure carries few risks and, according to the Podiatry Network, has a 60 percent success rate at permanently removing pain due to leg nerve damage. The primary side effect is discomfort at the site of the injections, which disappears within a few days.
Surgery
When leg nerves have been severed as the result of an accident, the ends of the nerves sometimes can be surgically reattached. When completely destroyed beyond repair, the nerve is stripped in a surgical procedure. Nerves from other parts of the body also can be used as connectors between the severed nerve endings. When nerves are destroyed, tendons sometimes can be transferred to other muscles to restore mobility, according to the Mayo Clinic. Electrical stimulation, braces, supports and physical therapy follow leg surgery.
