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Varicose veins are a fairly early stage of chronic venous insufficiency, a disease whose essence is blood stagnation in the veins of the lower extremities.
In addition to the dilated, twisted and protruding superficial veins, venous insufficiency causes a number of other symptoms such as the feeling of “heaviness and fullness” of the legs, which intensifies at the end of the day, especially after standing for a long time, painful calf cramps occurring especially at night and “restless syndrome” legs ”, dull pain, ankle swelling.
Treatment of varicose veins is therefore based primarily on the control of chronic venous insufficiency, which prevents the development of its more advanced stages and the deepening of varicose changes. It is based on conservative and invasive treatments.
Conservative treatment requires commitment and regularity from the patient. It consists in the daily use of special compression stockings, which by exerting pressure on the flaccid walls of the veins, cause blood to flow from the superficial to the deep veins (i.e. emptying varicose veins), and then increase the venous return from the lower limbs towards the heart. Depending on the severity of the disease, qualified staff selects stockings from among four classes characterized by increasing values of the exerted compression and teaches patients how to put them on correctly.
An important element of treatment are lifestyle and work changes: regular sports, avoiding long hours of standing and sitting, interrupting work with a few minutes’ walks, resting with legs raised above the level of the heart and supported along the entire length of the calf, giving up sunbathing and sauna. Additionally, varicose veins can be treated with preparations with rutosides or diosmin, as well as gels, ointments and creams with extracts of horse chestnut and other plants.
The methods of more or less permanent getting rid of varicose veins are methods of aesthetic medicine such as sclerotherapy, cryotherapy, laser therapy or surgical techniques (e.g. stripping).
med. Aleksandra Czachowska