Q: I am a 28 years old male suffering from muscle sprain in the right leg. I am using volini gel but there is little respite. I also took some pain killers from my near by medical shop but it has been nearly two weeks and the pain hasn’t reduced a bit. Please help.

A:Unfortunately you have only given your ‘diagnosis’ of ‘muscle sprain’ does not leave much room for my analysis of whether it is correct or incorrect. I can analyze only if you give symptoms of your ailment. You also wrote only about pain in the leg without specifying which part of the leg. Is it the front of leg? Is it the back of leg? Is it the outer side of leg? Is it the inner side of leg? In each of these areas is it in the muscle or is it in the bone? Is it in the upper third, middle third or lower third? Do you have pain in your ankle and foot? Again is it in front, back inner or outer side? Sprains are usually related to the ankle joints especially the outer side of the ankle joint. Merely taking pain killers can actually do harm. You need to understand the actual cause of pain before you start treating pain. You also not clarified how did the pain start? Did you have an injury or did you twist your leg? Sprains are also of different grades. Grade-1, where only a few fibres are torn. This settles with restricted activity and some analgesics. Grade-2 sprains are more serious where many more fibres are torn and quiet often needs resting the part in a plaster or a brace. Analgesics only help you tolerate the pain. Grade-3, sprains are complete tear of the structure and may need surgery though sometimes even thee may respond to plaster immobilization.