Understanding Venous Insufficiency: Causes, Symptoms, and Management

What is it?

Your arteries carry blood from your heart to the rest of your body. Your veins carry blood back to the heart, and valves inside the veins stop the blood from flowing backward.
When your veins have trouble sending blood from your limbs back to the heart, usually due to weakening of those valves, it is known as venous insufficiency. In this condition, blood is pooling in the veins in your legs.

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Additional names

This group contains additional names:
- Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI)
- Dermatitis stasis
- Peripheral venous insufficiency
- Stasis ulcer lower extremity
- Venous stasis
- Venous stasis ulceration of lower lim
- Venous ulcer of leg

Signs & symptoms

Symptoms of venous insufficiency include:
* swelling of the legs or ankles (edema)
* varicose veins
* pain that gets worse when you stand and gets better when you raise your legs
* leg cramps
* itchy legs
* weak legs
* thickening of the skin on your legs or ankles
* skin that is changing color, especially around the ankles
* leg ulcers

Diagnosis

Your doctor will want to perform a physical examination and take a complete medical history which is sometimes enough for the diagnosis.
They may also order some imaging tests to identify the source of the problem. These tests may include a duplex ultrasound that shows blood flow in your vessels, or a venogram (a procedure in which an x-ray of the veins is taken after a special dye is injected into them).
additional tests may be performed in order to rule out other conditions that may cause similar symptoms, including an echocardiography (un ultrasound of the heart) and blood and urine tests.

Treatment

The most common treatment for venous insufficiency is prescription compression stockings. These special elastic stockings apply pressure at the ankle and lower leg. They help improve blood flow and can reduce leg swelling.
Additional lifestyle modifications may be helpful, such as: lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, avoid standing for extended periods of time, exercise to improve circulation and elevate your legs while sitting or lying down.
There are also a number of medications that may help, and in more severe cases, surgery may be suggested.

☝️ This is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult with your physician before making any medical decision.

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Source of Information - We analyze big data of more than 23 million patients de-identified medical records from the following sources:

National Institution of Health ∙ World Health Organization ∙ University of Illinois hospital