Many people consider varicose veins to be a cosmetic problem. Varicose veins or protruding veins make your legs unsightly, but they also warn of more serious health problems. Timely noticing the signs of varicose veins, carrying out treatment and preventing relapses is the main task of those who want to maintain health and preserve the beauty of their legs for as long as possible.
What are varicose veins
Answering this question, many will say that the main sign of varicose veins is unsightly and protruding veins. This occurs due to the fact that the wall of the vein expands, stretches, and the vessel loses its tone. In fact, dilated veins are the main manifestation of varicose veins, but why does this happen?
Blood flows in the veins from bottom to top. The role of a kind of pump in this case is played by the leg muscles: contracting, they "lift" blood through the vein to the heart. But if during the day you sit mostly and move little, the muscles contract badly and the mechanism that helps the blood move up through the vein fails. The blood in the vessel stagnates, creating the preliminary conditions for the development of varicose veins.
The second important mechanism that ensures normal blood flow through the veins of the legs is the presence of valves in the walls of the veins. Normally they close and prevent blood from flowing from top to bottom. If the valves weaken, reflux occurs: backflow of blood. As a result, it stagnates and stretches the vessel. By losing tone, the venous wall expands and the vessel can no longer perform its function 100%. This condition is called varicose veins.
Therefore, varicose veins are a consequence of the weakening of the venous valves, which begin to allow blood to flow in the opposite direction, which leads to its stagnation. Varicose veins most often affect the superficial veins of the legs. The affected veins are clearly visible under the skin and appear knotty and tortuous.
What factors influence the formation of varicose veins
Risk factors that influence the development of varicose veins can be divided into several groups:
- Long-term load on the vascular wall: it can be a monotonous load (forced sitting or standing during the day), as well as high loads associated with weight lifting (for example, among athletes).
- Hormonal imbalances that affect the condition of the venous valves. That's why varicose veins often accompany pregnancy, and even teenagers and young people who are actively going through hormonal changes are at risk. Varicose veins also pose a threat to women taking hormonal contraceptives.
- Inheritance. The vascular wall includes the so-called structural proteins: collagen and elastin. Their relationship guarantees the elasticity of the vein. A person may have a congenital disorder in the ratio of these proteins, which leads to weakness of the venous wall. This determines the congenital predisposition to varicose veins.
Pay attention to the following points: presence of varicose veins in close relatives, presence or absence of hormonal fluctuations (taking contraceptives and other hormonal drugs, pregnancy, breastfeeding), sufficient level of physical activity during the day.
Why are varicose veins dangerous?
In the absence of timely diagnosis and correct treatment, varicose veins in the later stages can cause the development of serious complications such as:
- rupture of a dilated vein followed by massive bleeding;
- phlebitis: inflammation of the vascular wall;
- thrombophlebitis - an inflammatory process of the vascular wall with the formation of a blood clot (thrombus) on its internal surface;
- thrombosis: blockage of the lumen of a vein with a blood clot, which impairs blood flow;
- thromboembolism - a condition in which a blood clot detaches from the site of its formation and is transported with circulating blood to other structures of the body, blocking smaller vessels and causing ischemia;
- Trophic ulcers are long-term non-healing wounds on the skin of the legs, resulting from impaired blood circulation and tissue trophism.
Many complications are difficult to treat, significantly reduce a person's quality of life and can lead to irreversible consequences.
Varicose veins: what to look for
So, varicose veins are one of the most common vascular pathologies. Many of us, especially office workers, are at risk. To understand if it is appropriate to consult a phlebologist, answer some questions:
- Do your feet swell at the end of the day? Do you feel heaviness, pain or cramps in your legs at night?
- How much time during the day do you spend in the same position: sitting or standing?
- Have your relatives suffered from varicose veins?
- Do varicose veins and tortuous red capillaries appear on your legs?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, we recommend that you see a doctor. In a medical center specialized in the treatment of varicose veins it is possible to undergo ultrasound diagnostics (lasts about 20 minutes), which will identify any varicose veins or allow you to evaluate the risks of their development. A phlebologist will provide recommendations for prevention or effective treatment.
What to do if varicose veins appear
After the phlebologist diagnoses varicose veins, he selects treatment tactics taking into account the stage of the disease and the severity of clinical symptoms. Therapeutic measures may combine conservative, medicinal and surgical techniques.
As part of conservative therapy, the following is prescribed:
- dietary nutrition to improve the rheological properties of blood, strengthen the vascular wall, prevent edema, normalize digestion processes, reduce body weight (if necessary);
- wearing compression clothing of a certain compression class (stockings, socks or tights).
Also, as part of a comprehensive treatment, the doctor may recommend external remedies to eliminate the signs of the disease. They are available in the form of ointments, gels, creams and are divided into three large groups:
- phlebotonic (venotonic) - improves the tone of the walls of blood vessels, as a result of which the dilated veins return to their original state;
- heparin: reduces blood viscosity, reduces the risk of blood clots, increases blood flow;
- anti-inflammatory: helps eliminate inflammation and pain.
The basis of drug therapy is phlebotropic drugs. These substances improve the outflow of lymphatic fluid, blood microcirculation, reduce the permeability of the vascular walls and increase their tone.
The gold standard for treating varicose veins is non-surgical methods. They allow to stop the progression of the pathological process, block blood flow in damaged veins, eliminate unpleasant symptoms of the disease and restore the aesthetics of the legs without scars and long-term rehabilitation.
The modern phlebology center uses all modern treatment methods:
- Sclerotherapy. A modern procedure for removing varicose veins by injecting them with a special substance - sclerosant. With the help of such a drug, the dilated vessel "sticks" and is thus excluded from the general blood flow, and blood begins to circulate through healthy veins.
- Removal of veins with laser and radio frequency. Both methods are similar; they are based on thermal damage to the venous wall, as a result of which it "seals", turns into a scar and then resolves. The procedures are real alternatives to classic interventions and are performed under ultrasound guidance. This allows you to act only on pathological lesions without damaging healthy tissues.
- In cases where surgery is necessary, the clinic performs delicate and minimally invasive interventions: phlebectomy, miniphlebectomy, stripping, crossectomy. They are almost always applicable, even in difficult cases.
Very often a combined approach is used in the treatment of varicose veins. For example, large dilated veins are deactivated from blood flow using radiofrequency and laser treatment, while smaller superficial vessels with tributaries are deactivated using sclerotherapy. In this case, conservative therapy is performed simultaneously.