The Treatment of Varicose Veins

Over 25 million people suffer in America suffer from varicose veins. Varicose veins or venous reflux disease, cause blood to pool in the veins of lower limbs. Poor circulation is the primary cause of this affliction. This affliction affects both men and women. 72% of American women suffer from this and 42 % of the men suffer this by the time they are 60. Women who have been pregnant or who are obese suffer from this condition too. People that are prone to varicose veins do a lot of standing in their professions.

Symptoms of varicose veins include the following: aching heavy legs, ankle swelling, some dryness in the skin, reddening of the skin, spider veins, cramps while standing up, scarring in the ankle, shrinkage of skin above ankle, and restless legs syndrome. Most varicose veins occur in the superficial veins or veins close to the surface. This is so because these veins are subject to high pressure when standing. Varicose veins itch and are painful when standing. The constant itching causes ulcers. Our legs have leaflet valves. Each leaflet valve prevents blood in the leg from pooling. It’s a one way valve to prevent blood from flowing backwards. The heart has to pump up hill with the legs so the leaflet valves prevent gravity from taking charge. The leaflet valves fail in varicose veins causing the blood to pool in the vein.

Some non-surgical treatments include elastic stockings, elevating your legs, and exercise. Traditional varicose veins surgery has a surgeon remove the affected vein. Doctors refer to this treatment as vein stripping. The deep veins in a leg return 90% of the blood to the heart and therefore stripping the superficial veins does not affect blood return. Newer treatments use less invasive methods such as endovenous laser treatment, radiofrequency ablation, and sclerotherapy.

In sclerotherapy, a doctor injects medication into the vessels. This medicine shrinks the afflicted vein. In radiofrequency ablation, doctors use a high frequency alternating current to the varicose vein. A doctor inserts a catheter into the afflicted vein and then the radio energy closes the vein. In endovenous laser treatments, doctors use an optical fibre to treat the vein. The doctor inserts the optical fibre into the vein as an infrared laser is shone into the vein. This cause the vein to contract.

If left untreated, varicose veins can impact your life by causing you severe pain and loss of work. In the United States more than two million workdays are lost each year from this condition. Annual expenditures from the cost of treating varicose veins hover around one and a half billion dollars.