Patient Question: Disease: Colon tumor surgery caused by nerve damage to form leg muscle atrophy Description: My father is 59 years old, is a patient in Shenyang, last June had colon cancer surgery, after surgery after 7 times of chemotherapy, but the surgery led to nerve damage, after the surgery began to recede is numb, and then became this leg pain, from last year to now the pain has several months of time, the leg sometimes muscle throbbing, currently walking very difficult. At present, it is very difficult to walk. Due to the painful muscle atrophy, I have trouble sleeping at night. Since my father has colon cancer, his regular checkups are normal. Help wanted:Because he is a patient in Shenyang and has difficulty moving around, my father’s illness is now making his family particularly anxious and angry. I wonder if this kind of leg muscle atrophy due to nerve damage caused by surgery can be treated? Can I be prescribed medication off-site to treat it? I am in Shenyang to do the appropriate tests as you requested. I’m not sure if there’s a better treatment for this, as long as the pain in the atrophied leg is relieved. Reply from Tao Tuoyu, Department of Neurology, Nanjing Brain Hospital: From the electromyography, the right femoral nerve is damaged, the femoral nerve innervates the quadriceps muscle, which means the right thigh muscle is atrophied, the calf is still okay, the patient’s leg cannot be straightened, but the function of the calf is not greatly affected. I wonder if this is the case for the patient? Cause of right femoral nerve damage: If it is immediately postoperative and the thigh cannot be straightened, it is likely to be a surgical injury. Since it is a proximal nerve damage and it is almost a year old, the recovery is not optimistic. Muscle atrophy recovery is unlikely. The key to treatment now is proper physical therapy, massage, acupuncture, pain relief, psychological comfort to the patient, and ultimately prevention of limb contracture and deformity. Because of the long treatment time and the need for human and material resources, you can choose a local hospital with a rehabilitation department or physiotherapy department close to home for treatment. After rehabilitation exercises, as long as there is improvement and the patient has confidence and overcomes psychological problems, the pain will be reduced and disappear.