Many people consider varicose veins to be a cosmetic problem. Spider veins or bulging veins make your legs look unsightly, but also warn of more serious health problems. Recognizing the signs of varicose veins in time, carrying out treatment and preventing relapses is the main task for those who want to maintain health and keep the beauty of their legs as long as possible.
What are varicose veins?
Many who answer this question will say that the main symptom of varicose veins is unsightly, bulging veins. This happens due to the expansion of the vessel wall, stretching and loss of tone of the vessel. Indeed, dilated veins are the main manifestation of varicose veins, but why does this happen?
Blood flows through the veins from the bottom to the top. In this case, leg muscles play the role of a kind of pump: by contracting, they "lift" the blood from the vein to the heart. But if you mostly sit and move little during the day, the muscles contract weakly and the mechanism that helps the blood to rise from the vein fails. The blood in the vein stagnates, which creates a prerequisite 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 lengthens 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.
Thus, varicose veins are the result 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 mostly affect the superficial veins of the legs. Affected veins are clearly visible under the skin and appear knotty and crooked.
What factors affect the formation of varicose veins
Risk factors affecting the development of varicose veins can be divided into several groups:
- Long-term load on the vascular wall - this can be a monotonous load (forced sitting or standing during the day), as well as high loads associated with lifting weights (for example, among athletes).
- Hormonal imbalances that affect the condition of the venous valves. Therefore, varicose veins are often accompanied by pregnancy, and adolescents and young people who are actively undergoing hormonal changes are also at risk. Varicose veins also threaten women who take hormonal contraceptives.
- Heredity. The vascular wall includes the so-called structural proteins - collagen and elastin. Their ratio ensures the elasticity of the vessel. A person may have a congenital disorder in the ratio of these proteins, which causes the weakness of the venous wall. This determines the congenital tendency 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), sufficient level of physical activity during the day.
Why are varicose veins dangerous?
In the absence of timely diagnosis and proper treatment, varicose veins in the later stages can lead to the development of such serious complications:
- rupture of an enlarged vein, followed by massive bleeding;
- phlebitis - inflammation of the vessel wall;
- thrombophlebitis - inflammatory process of the vessel wall with the formation of a blood clot (thrombus) on its inner surface;
- thrombosis - blocking the lumen of a vessel with a blood clot that disrupts blood flow;
- thromboembolism - a condition in which a blood clot breaks away from its place of origin and is transported by circulating blood to other structures of the body, blocking small vessels and causing ischemia;
- trophic ulcers are long-term non-healing wounds caused by disruption of blood circulation and tissue trophism in the skin of the feet.
Many complications are difficult to treat, significantly reduce a person's quality of life, and can cause irreversible consequences.
Varicose veins: what to look for
Thus, varicose veins are one of the most common vascular pathologies. Many of us, especially office workers, are at risk. To understand whether it is time to consult a phlebologist, answer a few questions:
- Are your feet swollen at the end of the day? Do you feel heaviness, pain or cramps in your legs at night?
- How much time do you spend in the same position during the day - sitting or standing?
- Have your loved ones suffered from varicose veins?
- Are spider veins and tortuous red capillaries visible 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 treats varicose veins, you can undergo ultrasound diagnostics (it takes about 20 minutes), which will identify varicose veins, if any, or allow you to assess the risks of its development. The phlebologist will give recommendations on effective prevention or treatment.
What to do if varicose veins appear
After identifying varicose veins, the phlebologist chooses treatment tactics, taking into account the stage of the disease and the severity of clinical symptoms. Therapeutic measures can combine conservative, drug and surgical methods.
As part of conservative therapy, the following are prescribed:
- dietary food to improve the rheological properties of blood, strengthen the vascular wall, prevent edema, normalize digestive processes, reduce body weight (if necessary);
- wear compression clothes (socks, stockings or tights) of a certain compression class.
Also, as part of a comprehensive treatment, the doctor may recommend external remedies to relieve the symptoms of the disease. They are available in the form of ointments, gels, creams and are divided into three large groups:
- phlebotonics (venotonic) - improves the tone of the walls of blood vessels, as a result of which dilated vessels return to their original state;
- heparin - reduce blood viscosity, reduce the risk of blood clots, increase blood flow;
- anti-inflammatory - helps relieve 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 vascular walls and increase their tone.
The gold standard for treating varicose veins is non-surgical methods. They make it possible to stop the development of the pathological process, stop the blood flow in the damaged vessels, eliminate the 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 procedure to eliminate varicose veins by injecting a special substance - a sclerosant. With the help of such a drug, the enlarged vessel "sticks together", and then it is separated from the general blood flow, and the blood begins to circulate through healthy vessels.
- Laser and radiofrequency vein removal. Both methods are similar in that they are based on thermal damage to the venous wall, as a result of which it is "sealed", becomes a scar, and then dissolves. The procedures are a full-fledged alternative to classic operations and are performed under ultrasound guidance. This allows you to act only on pathological lesions without damaging healthy tissue.
- In cases where surgical intervention is necessary, soft, minimally invasive operations are performed in the clinic: phlebectomy, miniphlebectomy, stripping, crossectomy. They are almost always applied, even in difficult cases.
A combined approach is often used in the treatment of varicose veins. For example, large dilated veins are turned off from the circulation by radiofrequency and laser treatment, and smaller superficial veins with branches are extinguished by sclerotherapy. In this case, conservative therapy is carried out at the same time.