Many people consider varicose veins to be a cosmetic problem. Spider veins or varicose veins make your legs look unsightly, but they also warn of more serious health problems. Noticing signs of varicose veins at the right time, carrying out treatment and preventing relapses is the main task for those who want to maintain health and preserve the beauty of the legs as long as possible.
What are varicose veins?
Answering this question, many will say that the main sign of varicose veins is ugly and elongated veins. This happens due to the fact that the wall of the vein expands, stretches and the vessel loses its tone. Indeed, varicose veins are the main manifestation of varicose veins, but why does this happen?
Blood flows through the veins from the bottom up. 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 mostly sit and move a little, then the muscles contract weakly and the mechanism that helps the blood rise through the vein fails. The blood in the vessel stagnates, which creates the prerequisite for the development of varicose veins.
The second important mechanism that ensures normal blood circulation 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 stalls and lays the ship down. 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 of the legs. Affected veins are clearly visible under the skin and appear knotted and twisted.
What factors influence the formation of varicose veins?
The 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 affecting the condition of the venous valves. That is why varicose veins often accompany pregnancy, and teenagers and young adults who are actively undergoing hormonal changes are also at risk. Varicose veins also threaten women who take hormonal contraceptives.
- Inheritance. The vascular wall includes the 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, which leads to weakening of the venous 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), 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 an enlarged vein followed by massive bleeding;
- phlebitis - inflammation of the wall of blood vessels;
- thrombophlebitis - an 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 - a condition in which a blood clot breaks away from the site of its formation and is transported with the 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's time to see a phlebologist, answer a few questions:
- Are your feet swollen at the end of the day? Do you feel heaviness, pain or have leg cramps 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?
- Are spider veins and red tortuous capillaries appearing on your legs?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, we advise you to visit a doctor. In a specialized medical center that treats varicose veins, you can undergo an ultrasound diagnosis (lasts about 20 minutes), which will identify varicose veins, if any, or allow you to assess the risks of developingher. A phlebologist will give recommendations for prevention or effective treatment.
What to do if varicose veins appear
After the phlebologist has diagnosed varicose veins, he chooses 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 food to improve the rheological properties of blood, strengthen the vascular wall, prevent edema, normalize digestive processes, reduce body weight (if necessary);
- wearing compression garments of a certain compression class (stockings, stockings or tights).
Also, as part of a comprehensive treatment, the doctor can recommend external means to eliminate the signs of the disease. They are available in the form of ointments, gels, creams and are divided into three large groups:
- phlebotonics (venotonics) - improves the tone of the walls of blood vessels, as a result of which dilated veins return to their original state;
- heparin - reduces blood viscosity, reduces the risk of blood clotting, increases blood flow;
- anti-inflammatory - help eliminate inflammation and pain.
The basis of drug therapy is phlebotropic drugs. Such substances improve the flow 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 progression of the pathological process, block the blood flow in the damaged veins, eliminate the unpleasant symptoms of the disease, as well as 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 is "glued together" and then disconnected from the general blood circulation, and the blood begins to circulate through healthy veins.
- Removal of veins with laser and radiofrequency. 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 complete alternatives to classic operations and are performed under ultrasound guidance. This makes it possible 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 applicable almost always, even in difficult cases.
Very often, a combined approach is used in the treatment of varicose veins. For example, large dilated veins are removed from the bloodstream using radiofrequency and laser treatment, and smaller superficial vessels with branches are closed through sclerotherapy. At the same time, conservative therapy is carried out.