Varicose veins are one of the most common vascular pathologies.
Varicose veins still bothered our ancestors, but doctors tried unsuccessfully to overcome the disease. In our time, chronic venous insufficiency continues to disfigure the beautiful female and male legs; however, modern medicine offers a wide range of methods to get rid of varicose veins in the legs.
According to some reports, more than 10% of the population suffers from the disease in one form or another, women are more susceptible to it.
Varicose veins can occur at any age, even in childhood. The determining factor in the development of the disease is hereditary predisposition.
The Causes of Varicose Veins
The main cause of varicose veins is a genetically determined imperfection of the connective tissue, including that which makes up the vessels. Hereditary predisposition means that if first-line relatives suffer from any form of varicose veins, the person is at risk of contracting the disease.
For the development of varicose veins, special conditions are also necessary, created by the patient's lifestyle. These factors cause the usual stagnation of blood in the lower body, creating a static charge.
Varicose veins in the legs usually occur in people whose work is associated with prolonged standing: hairdressers, clerks, surgeons.
Pelvic varices can be triggered by pregnancy, as an enlarged uterus can cause prolonged compression of the pelvic floor veins. Also, varicose veins in the pelvis occur in people who lead a sedentary lifestyle.
Factors that interfere with blood circulation and cause varicose veins in the legs also include wearing tight clothing and shoes, and the habit of sitting cross-legged. The reason for the development of varicose veins in the pelvis can be practiced incomplete sexual intercourse as a method of contraception.
Varicose Vein Symptoms
The symptoms of varicose veins in the legs are as follows:
- Feeling tired, feeling heaviness and fullness in the legs, worse at night;
- Pain in the legs, which is not clearly located, painful and pulled in nature, the pain syndrome also increases in the afternoon;
- The appearance of external symptoms of varicose veins in the legs. Telangiectasias, or spider veins, are an intertwining of thin purple or cyanotic vessels. As the disease progresses, large veins begin to appear in the form of swollen, sinuous subcutaneous cords, so-called worm-like veins;
- At an advanced stage, the signs of complications from varicose veins in the legs are joined: thrombophlebitis, trophic ulcers, thrombosis. These are formidable complications that cause 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 limbs).
The symptoms of pelvic varices in women are nonspecific and resemble the symptoms of an inflammatory disease of the female genital tract, which is why misdiagnosis is often made.
The main symptoms of pelvic varices are:
- Intermittent painful pain in the pelvic region. The dependence of the painful syndrome with the phase of the menstrual cycle is traced, just before the start of menstruation, the pain, as a rule, intensifies;
- Profuse mucous secretion from the vagina.
A special case of manifestation of pelvic varicose veins are hemorrhoids with all their inherent symptoms.
Symptoms of testicular varicose veins in men often go unnoticed and are discovered by accident during a medical examination. As a rule, this is a characteristic worm pattern of an enlarged venous plexus on one side of the scrotum, pulling unilateral pain in this area that appears after loading.
Diagnosis of varicose veins
Diagnosis is based on varicose vein symptoms, data from external exams, as well as the results of hardware research methods. In this capacity, the most informative are Doppler ultrasound and duplex ultrasound angioscanning.
If pelvic varices are difficult to diagnose in women, transuterine phlebography can be used.
To confirm the diagnosis of testicular varices, special functional tests are used (eg the Valsalva test).
Varicose Vein Treatment
The treatment of varicose veins depends on the location of the pathology, and it can be conservative or surgical. The most commonly used combination of several of them.
As conservative treatment for varicose veins in the legs, drug therapy and compression are used. The use of drugs does not have an independent meaning, but it helps to alleviate the symptoms of varicose veins in the legs: it eliminates the feeling of heaviness, fatigue and pain.
Compressive therapy consists of the use of medical compression stockings, which have a compressive and massaging effect on the superficial veins, helping to eliminate venous congestion. Compression therapy is highly effective and can be considered as an independent method of treating leg varicose veins at an early stage of development or in the postoperative period. Currently, medical compression stockings are created with high-tech materials and do not cause problems during prolonged use, including aesthetic.
The most radical treatment for all types of varicose veins is surgery. Phlebologists now prefer minimally invasive techniques: varicose vein sclerosing, laser surgery, endoscopic phlebectomy, microsurgical vein phlebectomy. These techniques allow for excellent results with minimal risk of surgical and postoperative complications.
The classic surgical treatment of varicose veins is also used, in which the injured part of the vein is bandaged and excised. In this case, the blood flow is diverted.
It should be understood that the modern treatment of varicose veins, with all its achievements, does not eliminate the main cause of the disease - the weakening of the vascular wall. Therefore, the treatment performed requires lifelong prevention of disease recurrence and, if possible, the complete elimination of factors that contribute to the development of varicose veins. Only this approach will allow us to speak of a total 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 often negligible. The use of folk remedies for varicose veins is justified as a symptomatic therapy to reduce the discomfort caused by the disease and its complications. As a rule, decoctions and ointments based on medicinal plants are used, with anti-inflammatory and antibacterial action.