Violation of the reverse flow of blood in the lower extremities is called chronic venous insufficiency - it indicates that the valves inside the vessels are not working well, and therefore the blood flows downward under the force of gravity, but does not return up to the heart in sufficient volume.
This is a very common circulatory disorder, especially among women giving birth.
Among the risk factors are:
- hereditary predisposition;
- age;
- lack of mobility;
- long stay in the heat;
- obesity ;
- standing work.
Classification of chronic venous insufficiency
Disruption of the operation of the vascular valves occurs in stages. Doctors distinguish the following degrees:
- 0 degree - the appearance of the legs remains unchanged, but the patient complains of heaviness in the limbs, cramps of calves when lifting the gravity.
- 1 degree of chronic venous insufficiency is characterized by the appearance of vascular asterisks or telangiectasias. They have a bluish tinge, are well visible on the skin, slightly rise above its surface. There may be a so-called. reticular veins - that is, local extensions of subcutaneous vessels, which can also take the form of asterisks, reticuli, cobwebs or be linear.
- 2 degree of chronic venous insufficiency is characterized by varicose expansion of the subcutaneous veins with the formation of nodules that look like swollen sacs of bluish color.
- On the third degree of chronic venous insufficiency, swelling of the extremity takes place.
- For the 4th degree , the appearance of venous eczema and hyperpigmentation is characteristic (the skin has an abnormal brown color, there is erosion on it). In some cases, hypopigmentation is recorded, that is, white atrophy of the skin and soft tissue thickening (lipodermatosclerosis).
- With a failure of grade 5 , the healing trophic ulcer joins the symptoms described above.
- 6 degree - trophic ulcer does not heal.
Treatment of chronic venous insufficiency
As a conservative treatment of stagnation of venous blood in the limbs, the use of compression knitwear and the use of phlebotrophic drugs are used. In the first case, the symptoms are removed by forming an additional framework for the veins. Medicines are meant to increase venous outflow, however for today the effectiveness of these medicines is not as high as it would be desirable. An alternative to the conservative treatment of chronic venous insufficiency are surgical methods that allow the removal of dilated veins. Thanks to the use of lasers, this procedure has become painless.