bilateral leg weakness

Bilateral weakness in the leg muscles can be as mild as a generalized feeling of fatigue in your legs or as extreme as complete paralysis. Bilateral weakness indicates a problem in your central nervous system -- in your brain, spinal cord or nerves. Many disease processes or trauma can cause bilateral weakness in your legs.

Causes

Bilateral leg weakness can be caused by many things. For example, infection is is thought to be involved in 40 percent of cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system, according to an article in a 2008 issue of "Neurology." This weakness may also be caused Tick paralysis or West Nile virus. Trauma or disease that causes damage to your spinal cord or a tumor compressing the nerves that affect your legs can also cause this symptom. A stroke may also cause this problem. Diseases such as diabetic neuropathy cause nerve damage, in particular to the extremities. Genetic problems such as muscular dystrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease or multiple sclerosis can also cause bilateral leg weakness.

 Treatment

Treatment of bilateral leg weakness depends on the cause of the problem. In the case of infectious or genetic causes, the treatment is largely to reduce symptoms, because a cure is not always available. In trauma, the goal is to alleviate the pressure on the spinal cord as soon as possible to preserve the nerve. The same is true of disc disease; correction of the structural problem alleviates the symptoms in many cases.