Talk:Charley horse

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[edit] can we get a laymans explanation

maybe have a technical section and a laymans explanation

Layman's explanation:

Excuse my ignorance, but is all this medical gobbldegook merely describing a corked thigh?

A corkie? Is THAT all this is?

I imagine the questioner is not American. This sounds like another name for what in years past was called a "charley horse" in the US. Sfahey 03:00, 5 May 2006 (UTC)
I would also like to see this article in less technical terms. Maybe something that wasn't copied from About.com? PrometheusX303 01:04, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
Before making such accusations of plagiarism, consider the alternative: your alleged "source," one of many sites who pilfer wiki-work, is the plagiarist here, .Sfahey 15:06, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
MY apologies, Sfahey. I may have been a bit hasty with that. I can see that this article was not directly copied, but seems to be written originally. AAMOF, I looked at the copyright info, and either it wasn't there before, or I failed to see this: This is the "GNU Free Documentation License" reference article from the English Wikipedia I will lean towards the latter. PrometheusX303 22:24, 1 June 2006 (UTC)


It's from potassium deficiency, isn't it? At least the cramping kind? That's what I've always been told. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.102.186.24 (talk) 15:11, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] answerbag.com link

The link to answerbag.com seems not very reputable. What does it add to the article? It only seems to be a site that lets people write in their answers to questions -- not up to Wikipedia's standards, seemingly. I will be bold and remove the link. -Phoenixrod 08:05, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm with you on this one. Read the "answers" to this question. Two are correct, but the "top answer" is wrong. PrometheusX303 13:16, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] dead leg?

i arrived at this article via a redirect from dead leg; personally, i feel a dead leg has more in common with pins and needles than a charley horse. a dead leg is characterised by reduced or no feeling in the leg, as perhaps caused by a pinched nerve from crossed legs, or by a punch in the correct place upon the thigh; i associate a charley horse on the other hand with pain as opposed to numbness. --Kaini 04:40, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I redirected dead leg. When someone says their leg (or arm) is "dead" or "asleep", they usually mean no feeling. A charley horse causes great pain. Prometheus-X303- 07:14, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
What is in question here is not "my leg went dead", but the noun phrase "dead leg". In the US, coaches and trainers ("physios") use the latter to refer to the very painful thigh bruise we used to call a "charley horse" and the Brits call a "corkie".
This is correct. I re-redirected "dead leg" to here. Sfahey 15:51, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Hmm. I'd never heard that term before. Maybe the redirect should be changed, and at this article should have something like for numbness in the extremities, see Paresthesia? Prometheus-X303- 22:49, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm from north east England and I'd like to say that dead leg is the term used (aswell as a dead arm). School children normal punch others in the upper arm to give dead arms, a quick knee to the thigh is used to give dead legs. Cardboard boxA 16:23, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

'Dead leg' is a common injury in soccer in the UK, e.g. "York midfielder Steve Bowey was brought off after 25 minutes of the draw with Stafford with a dead leg but has trained this week and is fit to play." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_conf/6555493.stm) There is a description at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/treatment_room/features/newsid_2131000/2131683.stm --Malcolmxl5 10:06, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WPMED assessment

I assessed this article B class. The article still needs a much clearer lead. Some specific comments. The term is still very much in use in North America, where it refers two different things:

  1. In my experience it is not used for a contusion of the quadriceps muscle, but rather refers to a cramp of that muscle during sports play; I have seen it often in soccer players.
  1. The other use refers to a sudden excruciating cramp that usually occurs at night, during sleep, and in the calf muscle. This causes the person to abruptly wake and leap (or try to leap) out of bed.

--Una Smith (talk) 20:16, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

  • I've used and heard the term used for what the Brits call a "corkie" since 1964, as both an athlete and a physician. It is one of those terms like "runners' knee", which meant something quite specific at first (in that case, iliotibial band syndrome) but which when misused (for patello-femoral syndrome) for a more common condition unfortunately perpetuates itself. Same thing with "comprise" and "compose". I'll check out the intro., which first appeared when I started this article a couple of years ago. Sfahey (talk) 17:05, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] re 5/18 edit

The article has since its inception acknowledged that the term is used for two different conditions in the US. The definition in the reference cited in the 4/29 edit is clearly not written by a person knowledgeable in this area, as it confounds the two conditions in a misguided attempt to provide unity. (i.e., a "contusion" results from a direct blow, not from "strenuous" exertion. Also see my comment of 11/26,above. Reference 2 in the current article gives a splendid illustrated of the "dead leg" described in soccer players; THIS is what "charley horse" (as in the kick of horse) originally referred to. Sfahey (talk) 21:05, 18 May 2008 (UTC) (physician specializing in sports medicine)