Brief Answer:
depends on whether it is unilateral or bilateral

Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Thank you for posting your query in Healthcaremagic.com.
This is Dr. Swarnava Dattagupta answering your query.

You have asked a question which has a very broad spectrum.
Swollen legs and ankles are called as pedal edema. It has many causes depending on age, sex, comorbidities, medicine etc.
Starting from basics, pedal edema can be present in one leg which is called unilateral edema or in both legs which is called bilateral.

Unilateral pedal edema has got some specific causes like trauma leading to fracture or soft tissue injury, prolonged bed rest following orthopedic operations, local infection, filariasis etc.

Whereas bilateral pedal edema has a bigger spectrum and has many causes.
Some are physiological or normal like prolonged sitting in same position with foot dangling, pregnancy etc.
Whereas some are more serious and needs evaluation like-
congestive heart failure
renal failure or nephrotic syndrome due to kidney problem
cirrhosis because of liver damage
chronic venous insufficiency etc.

Some medicines like high blood pressure medicine, steroids etc can cause pedal edema too.

So if you kindly give a detailed history, I would be able to rule out few causes and help you further.

Hope I have answered your question.
If you have any further questions I will be happy to help.
Regards.

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