DISEASES OF THE VEINS: HOW SERIOUS ARE VARICOSE VEINS?
For many people they are only a cosmetic annoyance. Still others have minor symptoms of mild swelling and a feeling of heaviness or aching in the legs at the end of the day. In some cases, varicose veins are serious enough to lead to chronic skin thickening or ulceration. For many people, support or elastic stockings to help counteract the increased pressure in the veins are extremely helpful for limiting swelling and other more serious complications.Overtime, varicose veins tend to become more prominent. You can help slow progression of your varicose veins by using elastic support stockings, by not standing for too long, or by not being too sedentary. Move around as much as possible, but periodically lie down and elevate your legs above the level of your heart (“toes above the nose”) at the end of the day to help relieve swelling. Regular exercise will also decrease the pressure in the veins.Surgery to strip or remove the varicose veins can be performed in severe cases. In one study, 85 percent of people who had surgery had no recurrence of the varicose veins during the next 10 years. If you have small and less severe varicose veins, you might be best treated with injection of the veins or with a laser.Laser therapy may be used on very small, superficial blood vessels, but injection therapy (sclerotherapy) is usually best if the blood vessels are large enough for the procedure to be performed. Sclerotherapy may be helpful alone or in combination with surgery. Sclerotherapy is done on an outpatient basis. The physician slowly injects a solution into one or several of the visible veins while you are standing. Then, a small bandage is wrapped snugly over the veins for 24 hours. It may take more than one treatment session to achieve optimal results.Sclerotherapy collapses the veins, and blood is then prevented from flowing into them and the discoloration is eliminated within about a month. The treatment has no significant effect on circulation in the leg. In about one-third of people who have sclerotherapy, a yellow-brown discoloration may appear in the area and c take weeks, months, or even longer fade.*212\252\8*
