Chronic venous insufficiency is a widespread vascular condition. It affects millions of Americans and countless people worldwide. One of the common venous insufficiency symptoms is varicose veins. However, chronic venous insufficiency, CVI, can occur without causing varicose veins. Unlike varicose veins (varicosities or varices) that affect only the superficial veins, CVI is a condition that affects both superficial and deep veins. Both problems should be solved at the best varicose vein treatment NYC clinic.
Varicose veins
These are veins that appear mostly on the legs and are always swollen, large and twisted. Varicose veins have a blue color and look like large lumps under the skin surface. Found mainly in people who stand up or sit down for too long, varices develop when too much blood gathers in your legs’ superficial veins. As aforesaid, the strain triggered by hours of standing up or sitting down can cause blood to pool in superficial veins. And when this happens, excessive pressure is exerted on the vein walls.
Eventually, it stretches the affected vein and deteriorates the condition of the one-way valves within it. When these valves open, they allow the blood to enter and when they shut they prevent it from flowing backward. If they are damaged or weakened, they can let some of the blood leak and pool in your veins. Then the vein will start to bulge and twist. Once varicose veins form, the right thing to do is to visit a great vein doctor Manhattan area.
About chronic venous insufficiency
Just like varicose veins, CVI happens when blood accumulates in the superficial and deep leg veins due to impaired valves and circulation problems. Valves may be impaired or absent since birth or might develop due to vein wall weakness or vein injury. While varicosities are one of the major venous insufficiency symptoms, sometimes CVI can happen independently. It occurs when the blood pressure in a leg vein is too high and after the vein valves have been damaged by an injury or a blood clot in the deep veins (deep vein thrombosis). Therefore, venous insufficiency symptoms are usually a combination of different things, including varicose veins. It is associated with leg swelling and pain, and almost always with varicose veins.
Who gets CVI?
While both genders have a risk, females are more prone to CVI and its main symptom—varicose veins. Some people’s problems with this condition are thought to be hereditary and a few develop it after suffering a leg injury that causes vein damage. Older people past fifty years have a bigger risk because their veins have weakened a lot over the years. Additionally, people who strain a lot when working are in danger of having venous insufficiency symptoms. These include nurses, teachers, and office workers and so on. They stand up or sit down for several hours and this affects blood circulation in legs. Heavy or obese people as well as pregnant women or those taking hormonal contraceptives have a bigger risk of developing venous insufficiency.
What happens when you have CVI?
Regardless of the cause of CVI, it can lead to discoloration of leg skin, itching, and formation of varicose veins and venous ulcers. At this point, seeing a vein doctor Manhattan will be the wisest thing to do. Note that valve failure as well as venous reflux (blood leaking and pooling in leg veins) can affect veins that are unseen. These are deep veins and saphenous veins that run from your foot to the thigh. These can make your varicose veins hurt and as the condition is progressive, it should never be ignored. So, if you are having unusual leg cramps, abnormally big leg veins, itching and ankle swelling, it will be prudent to see a vein doctor the soonest possible.
Otherwise, you risk having advanced venous insufficiency symptoms that will be so difficult to treat. One surprising thing you might learn from your doctor is that the cause of your problem is not even in the legs but is in your pelvis. If that is the cause, it means that your veins are blocked and are making your varicose veins symptoms worse. Thus, you might require separate varicose vein treatment NYC.
Venous insufficiency symptoms
How would you know that you have chronic venous insufficiency? Presence of varicose veins, as earlier noted, is a good sign that you might have CVI. When your varices are associated with CVI, they will cause ankle swelling that affects even the lower leg area. Sometimes even the foot area might swell. Still, you might feel fullness (heaviness) in legs, muscle cramping pain, itching, burning or throbbing pain, fatigue, and restlessness. Spider vein might form too, and these are small, capillary-like veins that have closely related symptoms. If you still don’t meet your first vein doctor Manhattan, CVI-related varicose veins will trigger other creepy symptoms:
- Venous eczema or varicose dermatitis. It is associated with skin dryness, thickening, and itching.
- Skin discoloration. The skin in your lower leg might develop some dark stains.
- Blood clotting. You can either develop superficial or deep vein thrombophlebitis. Superficial one means that there are clots in veins that are closest to the skin while deep vein thrombophlebitis(DVT) refers to clots that form in deep veins. Blood clotting affects large varicose veins. DVT can become a life threatening condition if a blood clot travels to the lung where it can cause pulmonary embolism.
- Bleeding. One of the later chronic venous insufficiency symptoms is bleeding from a vein. That because the skin right above the affected veins is thin and vulnerable to bruising and bleeding.
- Lipodermatosclerosis. CVI might lead to fat loss in the area just above your ankles. As a result, the area might become thinner, tighter and shrunken.
- Venous ulcers. These are leg ulcers or open wounds that mostly affect the ankles area and the area beneath your calves. These are difficult to heal and in extreme cases might call for a surgical operation.
If you have any or all of the above mentioned venous insufficiency symptoms, don’t waste any more of your time. Make haste to find the best varicose vein treatment NYC clinic online. The doctors there will carry out a through examination to find out the exact cause of your symptoms.
How CVI is diagnosed
- To find out whether you are suffering from chronic venous insufficiency, your vein doctor Manhattan will do a physical examination and take your medical history. During physical examination, he or she will observe your veins when you are standing up as this is when they bulge and twist. To confirm their findings, doctors in New York usually use a Doppler device to listen to the blood flow in your veins. However, to be more accurate and comprehensive, your vein doctor Manhattan might carry out the more detailed duplex ultrasound test.
It creates a clearer image of your veins’ performance and structure. If there is blockage caused by blood clots or improper vein valve function, the vein doctor Manhattan specialist will find out. Sometimes the vein specialists use a CAT or MRI scan to locate other possible causes of your venous insufficiency symptoms, especially leg swelling. There is no pain or discomfort expected during clinical diagnosis.
How to cure CVI
In most cases, the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency involves medical and surgical options. Hence, your vein doctor Manhattan might ask you to adjust your diet and lifestyle, avoid prolonged periods of sitting down or standing up and to always raise your feet above the level of your heart to reduce leg swelling. Besides this, they might ask you to do a structured form of exercise in order to strengthen your calf muscles and improve its pump action. Besides these lifestyle changes, your vascular specialist will treat your condition medically.
Wearing compression stockings
The basic component of the standard of care given to individuals with CVI symptoms is compression stockings. They are particularly useful when a person is suffering from venous leg ulcers. The most useful when it comes to healing ulcerations are the multi-component, sustained high compression elastic bandages. They are more effective than single component bandages. So it will be upon your vein doctor Manhattan to select the right kind for you.
Manual lymphatic drainage
Sometimes the doctor might manage your chronic venous insufficiency symptoms by draining your lymphatic system. This is usually done via manual tissue mobilization and stretch and it improves the process through which the tissue fluid and the protein within it return to the lymph vascular system. In return, tissue swelling in people with serious CVI is properly controlled. Manual lymphatic drainage is thought to improve surgical results and quality of the victim’s life; this has not been shown to improve wound healing, however. If combined with compression stockings therapy, exercise and proper skin care (complete decongestive physiotherapy), it can greatly reduce the volume and extent of edema and pain.
Venoactive drugs
These drugs have effects that are similar to those offered by compression therapy. Their work is to reduce inflammation of the venous wall, reduce leg swelling, protect your endothelial cells from contraction and stop skin changes from developing. Most venoactive drugs are extracted from plants and have fewer side effects. Examples include benzopyrones, flavonoids, alpha-benzopyrones and saponins and so on.
Minimally invasive techniques
One does not have to undergo surgical operation to remove a problematic vein these days. Doctors have found less painful techniques to treating abnormal leg veins: sclerotherapy, radiofrequency ablation and endovenous laser ablation. These techniques are actively being done these days and can offer outstanding results depending on the selected vein doctor Manhattan.
- Sclerotherapy – It is an old method of treating varicose veins. Sclerotherapy entails injections with a special liquid (sclerosing agent) that is able to dry up and seal off a vein. Traditionally, sclerotherapy was done with just liquid sclerosants and this has changed in modern times. It is now being done with foam, explaining why it is being used to cure large varicose veins. Previously, sclerotherapy used to be suggested when a patient had the smaller varicose veins—spider veins. Now it is being used to treat big and swollen varicose veins. It is done with extremely tiny needles that do not cause pain and there is no anesthetic drug that is required to numb the area. While sclerotherapy has side effects and complications, its success rate is eighty to ninety percent. To ensure success, therefore, make sure that you pick the most dependable vein doctor Manhattan.
- Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) – This technique is selected when one has large and twisted varicose veins that do not respond to sclerotherapy or endovenous laser ablation. In this case, the selected vein doctor Manhattan will use pass radio waves energy via a thin catheter that will be inserted in the vein. This energy will heat the vein and cause it to form a fibrous scar tissue that will later dissolve on its own. RFA is super effective and one of the most selected minimally invasive treatment methods when varices are big.
- Endovenous laser ablation – EVLA is much like RFA only that no device is inserted in the vein and laser heat is used to destroy a vein. EVLA is recommended when one has smaller varicose veins, especially spider veins, and its level of effectiveness when treating larger veins is still being investigated. It is effective when done correctly and safely. In fact, it has the fewest side effects and these are rare.
If one has venous leg ulcers, the vein doctor Manhattan might have to use a multi-prolonged approach where other doctors might intervene and several strategies applied. As these are extremely serious complications, it is important to have your first venous insufficiency symptoms investigated and treated early on. This will keep your CVI from progressing and triggering ulcers and other serious complications. As you select a vascular doctor, find out their level of experience and education background. Find someone who is duly trained, certified and associated with a medical body. Once you do this, you will be totally able to treat and manage your chronic venous insufficiency symptoms before they worsen.