Chronic venous insufficiency, also known as Varicose Veins is swollen veins due to an abnormal accumulation of blood as a result of weakness in the walls and valves of the superficial veins. This causes the veins to widen and dilate, such that blood easily accumulates when a person stands for a long time.

When the vein dilates it is limited in its function of making the blood return to the heart, and the flow has to go against gravity: from the foot to the heart.

The veins have valves that prevent the return of blood flow to the foot while facilitating the rise to the heart. However, if the vein is dilated, the valves do not fulfill their function and blood flow is reversed, which causes the dilation to increase and problems such as edema, swelling of the leg or, in more advanced stages, ulcers or thrombosis of a Varicose vein, among others to occur.

This pathology is much more common in women; the appearance of varicose veins is 5x more frequent in women than in men. It usually occurs in the veins of the legs; however, they can also affect the esophagus and anal region.

Causes Of Varicose Veins

As already stated, defective valves are the number one cause of varicose veins. The valves are responsible for circulating blood to the heart, so if they do not work properly, the blood accumulates in the vein causing it to swell.

Secondly, thrombophlebitis causes the same effect. In this case, it is thrombi, or clots, which make circulation difficult.

The third most likely cause of varicose veins is pregnancy. Fortunately, varicose veins that appear during the gestation period are secondary and tend to disappear two to three weeks after delivery.

Symptoms

The most common clinical manifestations are:

• The heaviness of legs.
• The appearance of varicose veins with visible veins.
• Edema.
• Swelling.
• pain
• Cramps
• Quilting feeling.

In more advanced stages of the disease, the following can occur

• venous ulcers,
• ocher dermatitis (darkening of the skin), or
• Bleeding in complicated varicose veins may appear.

Risk Factors for Varicose Veins

There are risk factors that promote circulation problems, such as:

• age (50% of those over 50 suffer from it),
• sex (women are more likely than men),
• tall stature,
• genetic factors and family history of deep vein thrombosis in the legs,
• obesity,
• pregnancy and
• a sedentary lifestyle.

In addition, people who work standing up during most of their working day, for example, nurses, hairdressers, teachers, clerks, waiters, etc. are at higher risk of developing varicose veins.

Prevention

A healthy lifestyle, physical exercise, avoiding overweight, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle help you to control the appearance of varicose veins.

Treatment Of Varicose Veins

The pharmacological treatment of varicose veins is focused on alleviating symptoms and preventing the disorder from going further.

Some venotonic drugs that are taken by mouth are effective. The most used are Varicorin, Daflon (diosmin), Venosmil (hydrosmin) and Venoruton (oxerutins), among others.

Treatment with Microfoam

This is the newest therapeutic procedure, based on the injection of sclerosing microfoam for the removal of diseased venous vessels.

Micro-foam is a foam made up of a precise mixture of gases of high solubility in the blood (micro-bubbles, hence the name of Micro-foam) and a sclerosing substance, which causes the diseased vein to collapse, heal and disappear.

This foam destroys the interior of varicose veins, causing their progressive disappearance over time. This type of sclerosing agent selectively reaches the target tissue, which is the inner wall of the treated vein.

Laser or photosclerosis treatment

Also called endovascular venous ablation, in this procedure, a small incision is made in the skin and a thin optical fiber is introduced that applies laser energy inside the walls of the vein, causing a retraction in the walls of the vein; this subsequently closes it.

The laser transmits energy non-radially, so there is a probability of breaking the vein and causing inflammation in that area.

Its use in excessively tortuous veins is not recommended.

In summary

Treatments of varicose veins consist of removing the varicose vein and that can be achieved through:

• Surgery or application of heat: The heat can be applied using a laser catheter or a radiofrequency catheter.
• chemical substances: Through a micro foam that has a sclerosing substance to eliminate the varicose vein.

Additional Information

Varicose veins are the most frequent vascular disease, affecting between 20 and 30 percent of the adult population. Also, their prevalence increases with aging.

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