Common Symptoms
What is Vein Disease and What are the Symptoms?
The circulatory system within the body consists of both vein and arteries. Your arteries travel from the heart and carry oxygenated blood to your organs and tissues, sharing nutrients to all parts of the body. Once the blood reaches its target location, it returns back to the heart via veins. These veins carry deoxygenated blood against gravity with the help of valves. These valves are found about one inch apart and allow the blood to flow in the right direction.
When the valves stop working, blood starts to pool in your veins, causing an array of different problems including swollen ankles, discoloration, itching and restless legs, heaviness, tiredness, cramping, leg pain, spider veins, varicose veins, and even ulcers. If your valves are not functioning properly in the superficial system of veins, this is called venous insufficiency or venous reflux disease.
Leg Pain & Swelling
While leg pain can be normal after intense exertions or a long day on your feet, it should not persist or be unbearable. Since one in five people will have at least some degree of leg vein problems, a very common source of leg pain and swelling is venous insufficiency or “leaky veins”. This means that the valves that are in our veins are staying open too long which allows backwards venous pressure to build up. It is this pressure that forces fluid from the bloodstream into the surrounding tissue and thereby causes swelling and pain. Excessive fluid also irritates your muscles causing more pain, itchiness, cramping, burning, heaviness or fatigue.
Treatments: compression stockings, sclerotherapy, endovenous laser ablation surgery, and VenaSeal as well as a combination of lifestyle changes
Itching & Burning
Itchiness and burning can naturally be caused by many things. When it comes to vein disease, itchiness and burning are caused by venous insufficiency. Venous insufficiency is when the valves in the veins are not closing correctly and allowing backwards venous flow. This backwards flow creates increased venous pressure in the legs and forces fluid from the bloodstream into the surrounding tissues in the legs. This fluid causes symptoms of itching and burning. An ultrasound done in the office will show which veins are responsible for the symptoms by showing which ones are dilated and have valves not closing appropriately.
Treatments: compression stockings, sclerotherapy, endovenous laser ablation surgery, and VenaSeal as well as a combination of lifestyle changes.
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Restless Leg Syndrome
Restless leg syndrome is a condition when you experience uncomfortable sensations and movements in your legs. Sometimes the only way for you to reduce the pain in your legs is by massaging or shifting them. Restless leg syndrome is related to vein disease since vein disease can cause inflammation that irritates your muscles and soft tissues.
Common symptoms are crawling/creeping sensations, aching, throbbing, tingling, etc. Typically these symptoms worsen at night when you are relaxing or sleeping.
Treatments: compression stockings, sclerotherapy, endovenous laser ablation surgery, and VenaSeal as well as a combination of lifestyle changes.
Leg Discoloration
Leg discoloration is a change in pigmentation of your skin to a darker color usually around the feet or ankles. This discoloration is a sign of blood depositing in your lower legs causing inflammation of the surrounding skin. This can lead to thinning of the skin with eventual ulceration.
Treatments: sclerotherapy, endovenous laser ablation surgery, VenaSeal and microphlebectomy.
Leg Ulcers
Anytime a wound won’t heal on the legs, usually the lower leg, this is a leg ulcer. The original wound could be a cut to the tissue, or the wound could simply develop in an area where the skin is not getting the nutrients and oxygen it needs from the blood, causing the tissue cells to die, forming a wound.
Ulcers can also occur because of the eventual break though of the skin due to venous reflux. The continued pressure on the skin from the backflowing blood creates an ulcer which is the final stage of venous reflux disease. Ulcers can be quite painful and happen after developing symptoms of spider veins, varicose veins, leg swelling, and dermatitis.
Venous leg ulcers develop due to high pressure in the veins of the lower leg. The veins have one-way valves whose job is to keep blood flowing in one direction back up to the heart. In some people these valves become weak or begin to malfunction, or the veins can become scarred or blocked. This allows the blood to flow backward and pool in the veins. This raises the pressure in the lower leg veins. This increase in pressure and the buildup of fluid prevents nutrients and oxygen from getting to the tissues. This causes the skin cells to die, creating a wound. These wounds often form over bony areas, such as the ankle.
Treatments: compression stockings, sclerotherapy, endovenous laser ablation surgery, and VenaSeal.
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Lymphedema
This condition is a swelling of the legs as a result of a malfunction to the lymphatic system. There are very small vessels (lymphatics) that normally capture and transfer the small amount of “leaked” fluid between arterioles and venules in the legs back into the venous circulation. A malfunction can be from hereditary reasons (anatomically defective) or acquired by secondary reasons (surgical damage or removal of lymph nodes, or chronic venous edema). Early treatment of venous insufficiency may prevent or improve secondary lymphedema.
Treatments: We specialize in the treatment of lymphedema, which can be very difficult to treat and each case will be evaluated on an individual basis. Endovenous laser ablation surgery is our primary treatment option for cases of lymphedema.
Pelvic Congestion Syndrome
Patients with pelvic varicose veins, or pelvic congestion syndrome, may have reflux and insufficiency within the pelvic varicose veins. Common symptoms include, pains in the pelvic region, swollen vulva, bulging areas in genital region or legs, and back pain. Women suffer more frequently from pelvic varicose veins, but men are also susceptible to the problem. Pelvic varicose veins may be invisible, particularly when the patient is lying down.
Pelvic varicose veins form when vein walls weaken, known as venous insufficiency, and when valves within the vein deteriorate and allow blood to flow backward, known as venous reflux.
Women who have been pregnant or are currently pregnant are by far the most at-risk individuals for developing this condition. The veins in the pelvic area expand during pregnancy in order to increase blood flow to the womb. On top of this, the extra weight from the fetus adds additional pressure to the veins in this area. This condition is considered to be very rare for women who have never experienced pregnancy, although not impossible.
Treatments: Endovenous laser ablation surgery
Deep Vein Thrombosis
This is a blood clot in the deeper or larger veins in the legs which is a dangerous condition. These blood clots can move into the lung circulation and cause death. You can notice deep vein thrombosis (DVT) if you have swelling, cramps, unexplained severe pain in the foot/ankle, warmer spots of skin, and skin discoloration. DVT can be diagnosed with a detailed lower extremity ultrasound.
Deep vein thrombosis causes can include a genetic predisposition (i.e., hereditary causes), prolonged immobility when traveling long distances without walking (e.g., air travel or long car rides), or underlying disease such as cancer or certain infections.
Treatments: different in every case and based on our findings, so a customized treatment plan will be developed and followed through. Endovenous laser ablation surgery is a very common treatment option for DVT.
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