Many people consider varicose veins to be a cosmetic problem. Spider veins or bulging veins make your legs look ugly, but they also warn of more serious health problems. Noticing the signs of varicose veins in a timely manner, carrying out treatment and preventing relapses is the main task of those who want to maintain the health and 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 bulging and unsightly veins. This occurs because the vein wall expands, stretches and the vessel loses tone. In fact, dilated veins are the main manifestation of varicose veins, but why does this happen?
Blood flows through the veins from bottom to top. In this case, the leg muscles play the role of a kind of pump: by contracting, they "lift" the blood through the vein to the heart. But if during the day you sit and move little, the muscles contract poorly and the mechanism that helps blood flow up the vein fails. The blood in the vessel stagnates, which creates the precondition for the development of varicose veins.
The second important mechanism that ensures normal blood flow in the veins of the legs is the presence of valves in the walls of the veins. Normally, they close and stop 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. 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 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 in the legs. The affected veins are clearly visible under the skin and appear knobby and tortuous.
What factors influence the formation of varicose veins
The 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 lifting weights (for example, among athletes).
- Hormonal imbalances that affect the state of venous valves. This is why varicose veins often accompany pregnancy, and teenagers and young adults who are actively experiencing hormonal changes are also at risk. Varicose veins also threaten women who take hormonal contraceptives.
- Heredity. The vascular wall includes so-called structural proteins - collagen and elastin. Its proportion guarantees the elasticity of the vein. A person may have a congenital disorder in the proportion of these proteins, which leads to weakening 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 (use of contraceptives and other hormonal medications, 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 such serious complications as:
- rupture of a dilated vein followed by massive bleeding;
- phlebitis - inflammation of the vessel wall;
- thrombophlebitis - inflammatory process of the vascular wall with the formation of a blood clot (thrombus) on its inner surface;
- thrombosis - blockage of the lumen of a vein with a blood clot, which impairs blood flow;
- thromboembolism - condition in which a blood clot breaks away from the site of its formation and is transported with the circulating blood to other structures in the body, blocking smaller vessels and causing ischemia;
- Trophic ulcers are long-lasting, 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
Thus, varicose veins are one of the most common vascular pathologies. Many of us, especially office workers, are at risk. To find out if it's 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 cramps in your legs at night?
- How much time during the day do you spend in the same position – sitting or standing?
- Did your relatives suffer from varicose veins?
- Do crooked red spider veins and capillaries appear 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 carry out an ultrasound diagnosis (it takes about 20 minutes), which will identify varicose veins, if any, or allow you to assess the risks of their development. A phlebologist will give recommendations on effective prevention or treatment.
What to do if varicose veins appear
After diagnosing 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, medicinal and surgical techniques.
As part of conservative therapy, the following are prescribed:
- dietary nutrition to improve the rheological properties of blood, strengthen the vascular wall, prevent edema, normalize digestion processes, reduce body weight (if necessary);
- wear compression clothing of a certain compression class (stockings, stockings or tights).
Also, as part of comprehensive treatment, the doctor may recommend external remedies to eliminate signs 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 the walls of blood vessels, causing dilated veins to 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 vascular walls and increase their tone.
The gold standard for treating varicose veins is non-surgical methods. They allow you 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 procedure for removing varicose veins by injecting a special substance - sclerosant. With the help of this medicine, the dilated vessel "sticks" and is then disconnected from the general blood flow, and blood begins to circulate through healthy veins.
- Laser and radiofrequency vein removal. Both methods are similar; they are based on thermal damage to the venous wall, with which it "seals", becomes a scar and then disappears. The procedures are complete alternatives to classic operations and are performed under ultrasound guidance. This allows it to act only on pathological lesions without damaging healthy tissues.
- In cases where surgery is necessary, the clinic performs gentle, minimally invasive operations: phlebectomy, miniphlebectomy, stripping, crossectomy. They are almost always applicable, even in difficult cases.
Often a combined approach is used in the treatment of varicose veins. For example, large dilated veins are disconnected from the bloodstream using radiofrequency and laser treatment, and smaller superficial vessels with tributaries are disconnected using sclerotherapy. In this case, conservative therapy is carried out simultaneously.