Muscle Wasting / Muscle Atrophy

One can appreciate from this photo that there is significant lower limb wasting (or muscle atrophy) of the right leg compared to the left. The right leg is also shorter compared to the left. Muscle wasting (or atrophy) is due to denervation of the muscle supplied by the motor nerve and occurs in lower motor neuron lesions, i.e. a lesion that either involves the anterior horn cell, or distal to the anterior horn cell (e.g. nerve root, plexus or peripheral nerve).