Chronic Venous Insufficiency Article

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Chronic Venous Insufficiency

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is a relatively rare but painful vein problem. Affecting about 5 percent of the population, CVI is caused when complications with the valves in your veins do not allow blood to flow back into your heart.

Author: Sara Goldstein

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Arteries bring blood from your heart into every area of your body, and veins take the blood from these areas back to your heart. When the valves in your veins fail to do this due to CVI, the end result can be a pooling of blood in the legs that can lead to swelling, ulcers and significant pain.

Causes of CVI

CVI may be caused by several factors including:

• High blood pressure
• Smoking
• Gender and age; CVI is more common among women between 40 and 49, and men between 70 and 79
• Obesity
• Pregnancy
• Family history
• Leg injury

CVI may also be caused by deep vein problems such as deep vein thrombosis. CVI can be detected during your routine medical examinations, but may also require more complex diagnostic tools such as a duplex ultrasound or a venogram.

It is important that you know the symptoms of CVI to enable you to bring them to the attention of your doctor in instances in which a routine checkup is not enough to detect the problem.

Symptoms of CVI

Symptoms of CVI may include:

• Leg ulcers
• Varicose veins
• Pain while walking that ceases with rest
• Tight feeling in the calves
• Itching around the lower legs
• Swelling in the legs or ankles
• Brown-colored skin around the ankles

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, it is important that you see an endovascular specialist as soon as possible. Left untreated, CVI can lead to disabling pain.

Treating CVI

Your endovascular doctor may recommend at-home treatment for CVI such as keeping your legs elevated, compression stockings and regular exercise. These alone, or combined with CVI medications, are often sufficient to treat this problem. Your doctor may also recommend minimally invasive vein treatments such as sclerotherapy, a small injection that causes non-vital, surface veins to collapse.

In some instances, surgery may be the best option. While this is necessary for less than 10 percent of CVI patients, your doctor may determine that it is the best method to treat advanced cases of this disorder. There are a number of vein surgeries that your doctor may utilize. The type most suited to meet your needs will be determined based on your age and the extent of damage that has been done by CVI.

If you are suffering from the symptoms of CVI in or around Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, please visit the website of endovascular surgeon Dr. Dominic Pedulla at The Oklahoma Vein & Endovascular Center to learn more about your treatment options.

About Author

At The Oklahoma Vein & Endovasuclar Center, we offer vein treatment to patients who suffer from varicose veins, spider veins, and other vein problems. Let us help eliminate the signs and symptoms for unwanted veins.

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