Varicose veins are one of the most common vascular pathologies.
Varicose veins still bothered our ancestors, but then doctors tried to overcome the disease. In our time, chronic venous insufficiency continues to damage the legs of beautiful women and men, but modern medicine offers all the ways on how to get rid of varicose veins in the legs.
According to some reports, more than 10% of the population suffers from some form of the disease, and women are more susceptible to it.
Varicose veins can occur at any age, even in childhood. Hereditary predisposition is a determining factor in the development of the disease.
Causes of varicose veins
The main cause of varicose veins is a genetically determined defect in the connective tissue that makes up the veins. Hereditary predisposition means that if first-degree relatives suffer from any form of varicose veins, then the person is at risk for this disease.
The development of varicose veins also requires special conditions created by the patient's lifestyle. These factors create a static load and cause normal blood stasis in the lower body.
Varicose veins in the legs often occur in people whose work has been stopped for a long time: hairdressers, shop assistants, surgeons.
Pelvic varicose veins can occur as a result of pregnancy, as an enlarged uterus can cause prolonged constriction of the pelvic vessels. Also, pelvic varicose veins occur in people who lead a sedentary lifestyle.
Factors that impede blood circulation and cause varicose veins in the legs include wearing tight clothing and shoes, and the habit of sitting cross-legged. The reason for the development of pelvic varicose veins may be incomplete sexual intercourse as a method of contraception.
Symptoms of varicose veins
Symptoms of varicose veins in the legs include:
- The feeling of extreme fatigue, heaviness and fullness in the legs, worsens in the evening;
- Pain in the legs, which do not have a clear localization, are painful in nature and are pulled, the pain syndrome also increases in the afternoon;
- Appearance of external signs of varicose veins in the legs. Telangiectasias or spider veins are a mixture of thin veins of purple or cyanotic color. As the disease progresses, large veins begin to appear in the form of curly swollen subcutaneous cords, so-called worm-like veins;
- At an advanced stage, the symptoms of complications of varicose veins in the legs are combined: thrombophlebitis, trophic ulcers, thrombosis. These are huge complications that lead to a significant deterioration in the patient's quality of life (trophic ulcer) and in some cases even death (pulmonary embolism due to venous thrombosis of the lower extremities).
In women, the symptoms of pelvic varicose veins are nonspecific and similar to the symptoms of inflammatory diseases of the female genital organs, so diagnostic errors are often made.
The main symptoms of pelvic varicose veins are:
- Intermittent pain in the pelvic region. The dependence of the pain syndrome on the phase of the menstrual cycle is observed, the pain, as a rule, intensifies shortly before the onset of menstruation;
- Excessive mucous discharge from the vagina.
A special case of the manifestation of varicose veins of the pelvic cavity is hemorrhoids with all their characteristic symptoms.
In men, the symptoms of varicose veins of the testicles are often not noticeable and are detected by chance during a medical examination. As a rule, this is a characteristic worm-like pattern of the venous plexus enlarged on one side of the scrotum, causing unilateral pain in this area, which is visible after loading.
Diagnosis of varicose veins
The diagnosis is based on the symptoms of varicose veins, external examination data, as well as the results of hardware research methods. The most informative in this ability are Doppler ultrasound and duplex ultrasound angioscanning.
If pelvic varicose veins are difficult to diagnose in women, trans-uterine phlebography may be used.
Special functional tests (such as the Valsava test) are used to confirm the diagnosis of testicular varicose veins.
Treatment of varicose veins
Treatment of varicose veins depends on the location of the pathology and can be conservative or surgical. The most commonly used combination of several of them.
Drug and compression therapy are used as a conservative treatment for varicose veins in the legs. The use of drugs does not have an independent meaning, but helps to relieve the symptoms of varicose veins in the legs: to relieve the feeling of heaviness, fatigue and pain.
Compression therapy consists of wearing medical compression stockings, which have a compressing and massaging effect on the superficial vessels, helping to relieve venous congestion. Compression therapy is highly effective and can be considered as an independent method of treatment of varicose veins in the legs in the early stages of development or in the postoperative period. Today, medical compression stockings are made of high-tech materials and do not cause any problems during long-term wear, including aesthetics.
The most radical treatment for all types of varicose veins is surgery. Phlebologists now prefer minimally invasive methods: sclerosing of varicose veins, laser surgery, endoscopic phlebectomy, microsurgical venous phlebectomy. These methods allow to achieve excellent results with minimal risk of surgical and postoperative complications.
Classical surgical treatment of varicose veins is also used, in which the damaged part of the vein is closed with a bandage and cut. In this case, blood flow is impaired.
It should be understood that modern treatment of varicose veins, with all its achievements, does not eliminate the main cause of the disease - the weakness of the vascular wall. Therefore, treatment requires lifelong prevention of recurrence of the disease and, if possible, the complete elimination of factors that contribute to the development of varicose veins. Only this approach will allow us to talk about a complete cure for the disease.
The use of folk remedies for varicose veins
Folk remedies for varicose veins are widely and actively used, but their effectiveness is usually insignificant. The use of folk remedies for varicose veins is justified as a symptomatic therapy to reduce the anxiety caused by the disease and its complications. As a rule, herbal decoctions and ointments with anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects are used for this purpose.