Varicose veins are one of the most common vascular pathologies.
Varicose veins always bothered our ancestors, but then 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 whole range of methods to get rid of varicose veins on 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 a hereditary predisposition.
Causes of varicose veins
The main cause of varicose veins is a genetically determined imperfection of connective tissue, including that which makes up the vessels. The hereditary predisposition means that if the first line relatives suffer from any form of varicose veins then the person is at risk of contracting this disease.
For the development of varicose veins, special conditions are also required, created by the lifestyle of the patient. These factors cause the usual stagnation of blood in the lower body by creating a static charge.
Varicose veins in the legs often occur in people whose work is associated with prolonged standing: hairdressers, sales assistants, operating surgeons.
Pelvic varicose veins can be triggered by pregnancy because an enlarged uterus can cause prolonged compression of the pelvic floor veins. Also, varicose veins of the pelvis occur in people leading a sedentary lifestyle.
Factors that interfere with blood circulation and cause varicose veins in the legs also include wearing tight clothes and shoes, the habit of sitting cross-legged. The reason for the development of varicose veins of the pelvis can be practiced incomplete intercourse as a method of contraception.
Symptoms of varicose veins
The symptoms of varicose veins in the legs are as follows:
- Sensation of great fatigue, feeling of heaviness and fullness in the legs, worse in the evening;
- Pain in the legs, which does not have a clear localization, painful and pulling 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 interlacing of thin vessels that are purple or cyanotic in color. As the disease progresses, large veins begin to appear as winding, swollen subcutaneous cords called worm-shaped veins;
- At an advanced stage, the signs of complications of varicose veins of the legs join together: thrombophlebitis, trophic ulcers, thrombosis. These are formidable complications which lead to a significant deterioration in the patient's quality of life (trophic ulcer), or even in some cases death (pulmonary embolism due to venous thrombosis of the lower limbs).
Symptoms of pelvic varicose veins in women are nonspecific and resemble symptoms of inflammatory disease of the female genital tract, which is why diagnostic errors are often made.
The main symptoms of pelvic varicose veins are:
- Intermittent aching pain in the pelvic area. The dependence of the pain syndrome on the phase of the menstrual cycle is traced, shortly before the onset of menstruation, the pain, as a rule, intensifies;
- Profuse mucous discharge from the vagina.
Hemorrhoids with all their inherent symptoms are a special case of the manifestation of varicose veins of the pelvis.
Symptoms of testicular varicose veins in men are often not noticed at all and are discovered by chance during a medical examination. Typically, this is a characteristic deworming pattern of an enlarged venous plexus on one side of the scrotum, causing unilateral pain in that area that appears after weight-bearing.
Diagnosis of varicose veins
The diagnosis is based on the symptoms of varicose veins, the data of external examination, as well as the results of research methods on the material. As such, the most instructive are Doppler ultrasound and duplex ultrasound CT angiography.
If it is difficult to diagnose pelvic varicose veins in women, transuterine venography can be used.
To confirm the diagnosis of testicular varicose veins, special functional tests are used (for example, the Valsava test).
Treatment of varicose veins
The 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.
As a conservative treatment of varicose veins in the legs, drug and compression therapy is used. The use of drugs does not have an independent meaning, but it helps to relieve the symptoms of varicose veins in the legs: to eliminate the feeling of heaviness, fatigue and pain.
Compression therapy involves wearing medical compression stockings, which have a compressive and massaging effect on the superficial veins, helping to clear venous congestion. Compression therapy is very effective and can be considered an independent method of treating varicose veins in the legs at an early stage of development or in the postoperative period. Currently, medical compression stockings are created from high-tech materials and pose no problem during prolonged wear, including aesthetic.
The most radical treatment for all types of varicose veins is surgery. From now on, phlebologists favor minimally invasive techniques: sclerosis of varicose veins, laser surgery, endoscopic phlebectomy, microsurgical phlebectomy of the veins. These techniques allow you 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 bandaged and excised. In this case, the blood flow is bypassed.
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 weakness of the vascular wall. Therefore, the treatment carried out requires lifelong prevention of recurrence of the disease and, if possible, the complete elimination of factors contributing to the development of varicose veins. Only this approach will make it possible to speak of a complete cure of the disease.
The use of folk remedies for varicose veins
Folk remedies for varicose veins are used quite widely and actively, but their effectiveness is usually insignificant. The use of folk remedies for varicose veins is justified as symptomatic therapy to reduce the discomfort caused by the disease and its complications. As a rule, herbal decoctions and ointments, which have anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects, are used for this purpose.