Many people think of varicose veins as a cosmetic problem. Spider veins or bulging veins make your legs look unsightly, but they also warn of more serious health problems. Recognizing signs of varicose veins in a timely manner, carrying out treatment and preventing relapses is the main task for those who want to preserve their health and the beauty of their legs for as long as possible.
What are varicose veins?
When answering this question, many will say that the main symptom of varicose veins is unsightly, bulging veins. This is due to the fact that the vein wall expands, stretches, and the vessel loses its tone. In fact, enlarged veins are the main manifestation of varicose veins, but why does this happen?
The blood flows from bottom to top through the veins. In this case, the leg muscles perform the function of a kind of pump: by contracting, they "carry" the blood through the vein to the heart. However, if you mainly sit during the day and move little, the muscles contract poorly and the mechanism that ensures the blood risesthrough the vein fails. The blood in the vessel stagnates, which creates the conditions for the development of varicose veins.
The second important mechanism that ensures normal blood flow through the leg veins is the presence of valves in the vein walls. Normally they close and prevent blood from flowing from top to bottom. When the valves become weaker, reflux occurs - a backflow of blood. This leads to stagnation and stretching of the vessel. Due to the loss of tone, the vein wall expands and the vessel can no longer fulfill its function 100%. This condition is called varicose veins.
So, varicose veins are a consequence of weakening of the venous valves, which allow blood flow in the opposite direction, which leads to its stagnation. Varicose veins most commonly 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 development of varicose veins?
Risk factors that influence the development of varicose veins can be divided into several groups:
- Long-term stress on the vascular wall - this can be a monotonous load (forced sitting or standing during the day) as well as high loads when lifting weights (e. g. in athletes).
- Hormonal imbalances affecting the condition of the venous valves. That's why varicose veins often accompany pregnancy, and adolescents and young people who are actively undergoing hormonal changes are also at risk. Varicose veins also threaten women taking hormonal contraceptives.
- Inheritance. The vascular wall includes so-called structural proteins – collagen and elastin. Their ratio ensures the elasticity of the vein. A person may have a congenital disorder in the ratio of these proteins, leading to weakness of the vein wall. This determines the congenital predisposition to varicose veins.
Pay attention to the following points: the presence of varicose veins in close relatives, the presence or absence of hormonal fluctuations (taking contraceptives and other hormonal drugs, pregnancy, breastfeeding), a sufficient level of physical activity during the day.
Why are varicose veins dangerous?
Without timely diagnosis and proper treatment, varicose veins in later stages can lead to the development of such serious complications as:
- Rupture of an enlarged vein followed by massive bleeding;
- Phlebitis – inflammation of the vessel wall;
- Thrombophlebitis – an inflammatory process of the vascular wall with the formation of a blood clot (thrombus) on its inner surface;
- Thrombosis – obstruction of the lumen of a vein by a blood clot, affecting blood flow;
- Thromboembolism - a condition in which a blood clot breaks away from the site of its formation and is carried in circulating blood to other body structures, 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 trophy.
Many complications are difficult to treat, significantly affect the quality of life and can lead to irreversible consequences.
Varicose veins: what to look out for
Varicose veins are therefore one of the most common vascular diseases. Many of us, especially office workers, are at risk. To understand whether it is time for you to see a phlebologist, answer a few questions:
- Do your feet swell at the end of the day? Do you feel heaviness, pain or do you have leg cramps at night?
- How much time a day do you spend in the same position - sitting or standing?
- Do your loved ones suffer from varicose veins?
- Do you have spider veins and winding red veins on your legs?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, we recommend that you consult a doctor. In a specialized medical center that specializes in the treatment of varicose veins, you can undergo ultrasound diagnostics (takes about 20 minutes). to recognize any varicose veins or to assess the risk of their development. A phlebologist will provide recommendations for effective prevention or treatment.
What to do if varicose veins appear?
Having diagnosed varicose veins, the phlebologist selects treatment tactics taking into account the stage of the disease and the severity of clinical symptoms. Therapeutic measures can combine conservative, medical 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 digestive processes, reduce body weight (if necessary);
- Wearing compression clothing of a specific compression class (stockings, socks or tights).
As part of a comprehensive treatment, the doctor may also recommend external remedies to eliminate the symptoms of the disease. They are available in the form of ointments, gels, creams and are divided into three large groups:
- Phlebotonics (venotonics) – improve the tone of blood vessel walls, as a result of which dilated veins return to their original state;
- Heparin – reduces blood viscosity, reduces the risk of blood clots and increases blood flow;
- anti-inflammatory – helps eliminate inflammation and pain.
Phlebotropic drugs are the basis of drug therapy. Such 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 make it possible to stop the progression of the pathological process, block blood flow in damaged veins, eliminate unpleasant symptoms of the disease, and also restore the aesthetics of the legs without scars and long-term rehabilitation.
The modern phlebology center uses all modern treatment methods:
- Sclerotherapy. A modern method of removing varicose veins by injecting a special substance – sclerosant. With the help of such a drug, the dilated vessel "sticks together", is then switched off from the general blood flow and the blood begins to circulate through healthy veins.
- Vein removal using laser and radiofrequency. Both methods are similar; They are based on thermal damage to the vein wall, as a result of which it "closes", turns into a scar and then dissolves. The procedures represent full-fledged alternatives to classic operations and are carried out under ultrasound control. This makes it possible to act only on pathological lesions, without damaging healthy tissue.
- In cases where surgery is required, the clinic performs gentle, minimally invasive operations: phlebectomy, miniphlebectomy, stripping, crossectomy. They are almost always applicable, even in difficult cases.
A combined approach is often used to treat varicose veins. For example, large dilated veins are switched off from the blood circulation using radiofrequency and laser treatment, and smaller superficial vessels with inflows are switched off using sclerotherapy. In this case, conservative therapy is carried out at the same time.