Comfortable and
sedentary lifestyle, modern fashion, special
postures adopted while performing
professional duties have contributed to
increased incidence of a set of diseases
unheard in past. Varicose vein disease is
one of them and is a direct result of a
sedentary life style, adopted by modern
youth today. The problem of varicose veins
has become very common during these days.
According to one estimate, 15 to 20 per cent
of population in our country is suffering
from varicose vein problems these days.
Ladies suffer from varicose vein problems
four times more than their male
counter-parts. There is an increased risk of
development of varicose vein among young
females who wear tight jeans & high-heeled
sandals.
What are Varicose Veins?
Varicose veins are actually abnormal veins
lying just beneath the skin of your leg and
thigh. These varicose veins are prominently
visible, corkscrew like, entangled in one
another. It looks as if a number of
earthworms or blue-colored spiders are lying
under your leg skin. In these veins, the
mechanism of carrying impure blood from
lower limb back to heart gets deranged
either due to defective valves of vein or
absence of valves by birth. The function of
these valves is to control blood flow in the
veins.
Veins are those blood pipes, which collect
impure blood from your lower limbs and carry
it back to heart and then lung for
purification. The job of vein is difficult,
as it has to push blood upwards from leg
against gravity towards heart. This function
of vein is made possible by valves which
open up & allow blood to flow only in one
direction, but when a person stands up these
valves get closed to prevent blood from
going down towards feet. In other words,
these valves of veins constantly maintain a
unidirectional flow of blood that is always
towards the heart. When these valves are
absent or become defective, these varicose
veins fail to control blood flow in one-way
direction & in the process they become
dilated & swollen under the skin due to high
back-pressure and this results into pooling
of impure blood into the feet.
Features of Varicose veins
Varicose veins cause permanent swelling and
heaviness in feet. Skin of leg develops
black or blue colored patches. In thigh and
leg, under the skin develop snake or
earthworm like blue colored veins, resulting
into distortion of shape of leg and foot.
A person suffering from varicose vein,
develop pain in foot and leg while walking
or on prolonged standing. If varicose veins
are not treated effectively, leg skin will
develop eczema and an ulcer that never
heals. These ulcers caused by varicose veins
are called varicose ulcers. Sometimes there
occurs massive bleeding from varicose ulcer.
Ultimately, person is forced to lead a
disabled life.
What causes Varicose Veins?
In forty per cent of patients, varicose vein
are due to hereditary and run into families
and generations. The other important
causative factors are obesity, lack of
exercises, abnormal pressure on veins during
pregnancy, abnormal life style, prolonged
standing and prolonged sitting with legs
down.
Due to advanced age, overweight and lack of
exercises, veins of legs become very weak
and therefore develop into varicose veins.
Due to obesity, a lot of fat gets deposited
in the leg. This weakens the support system
of veins that result into veins becoming
dilated and tortuous.
In today’s modern age, a lot of occupations
and professions have sprung up where a
person is required to either constantly
standup for a long time or made to sit with
legs hanging down for a considerable time.
Computer professionals, receptionists,
security guards, traffic policemen, salesmen
working at counters in shops & departmental
stores and persons doing desk jobs day in &
day out are the worst sufferers of varicose
veins. Previous fracture of bone during road
traffic accidents, previous deep veins
thrombosis or previous incidence of clotting
in the veins is the significant contributor
to development of varicose veins & and
varicose ulcer.
Why ladies are more susceptible to Varicose
Veins?
Among females, due to some hormones, the
walls of veins become enlarged & dilated.
Besides, during pregnancy because of lot of
pressure on leg veins, veins become weak and
varicosed. In majority of women after
delivery varicosity disappear on its own &
veins assume normal diameter & shape. In
some ladies due to tumor of uterus or tumor
in abdomen, varicose veins are likely to
develop. One should be vigilant in such
cases.
Fashion is playing havoc among ladies. High
heeled sandals, tight belts and panties are
significant contributors to development of
varicose veins, as these items obstruct the
normal flow of blood in veins.
What to do if you have Varicose Veins?
In our country people are quite ignorant of
this disease of varicose veins. Patients of
varicose veins due to ignorance, either goes
to a general surgeon, a general physician or
a bone specialist for consultation. When
varicose veins gets complicated and turns
into a varicose ulcer, these patients then
go to either a skin specialist or a
homoeopath for treatment of so-called eczema
and skin problem. Sometimes varicose vein is
misdiagnosed as arthritis or sciatica.
Because of ignorance and misdiagnosis, a
patient of varicose vein keeps on shunting
from one specialist to another. This leads
to a considerable delay in treatment and
disability increases.
If any person is having blue colored visible
spider-like veins or blue- colored long
threads under skin and dark colored patches
or ulcer in legs, immediately consult a
cardiovascular or a vascular surgeon instead
of a general surgeon. If suspicion of
varicose vein arises, never make delay in
seeking consultation and treatment by a
Cardiovascular Surgeon /Vascular Surgeon, so
that timely intervention may prevent further
complications.
Treatment of Varicose Veins
1. For an effective treatment of varicose
veins, always go to a hospital where
services of a full-time Vascular or a
Cardiovascular Surgeon are available
2. In the early
stages of varicose veins, exercise and
sometimes medical treatment including
sclerotherapy suffice.
3. In
advanced stages of varicose veins, surgery
is required. There are various surgical
treatments, like phlebectomy, vein
stripping. In phlebectomy, small-sized
varicose vein are removed while in stripping
long-sized varicose veins are removed. There
are no harmful effects on the body or legs
after removal of varicose veins.
4. Sometimes
special techniques like endoscopy are used
for varicose veins operation especially in
cases of varicose ulcer. In this technique,
connecting channels are tied under
endoscopic vision to prevent pooling of
impure blood in the feet to minimize the
chances of recurrence of ulcers. This
technique was evolved in our hospital and
being practiced.
5. In a few
selected cases, a new laser technique
perfected in our hospital is also employed
for varicose veins treatment, which shortens
the hospital stay & minimizes the number of
cuts in the skin. This technique is not
suitable for all cases of varicose veins.
*** The writer is a Senior Cardiovascular
& Thoracic Surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo
Hospital, New Delhi. |
