Varicose veins are a problem not only for the elderly, but also for the very young. How often does it happen that a young woman after childbirth gets bulging knobby veins on her legs, pain and other varicose vein problems?
Signs of varicose veins on the legs.
The initial signs of varicose veins in the legs are considered to be the appearance of small vessels on the surface of the skin. They appear in small groups on the thighs. This is especially noticeable with cellulite. By the way, cellulite is directly related to varicose veins. The fatty tissue altered by cellulite makes it difficult for blood to drain from the lower extremities and increases the risk of developing varicose veins. Vessels that appear on the skin are called telangiectasia by doctors. These vascular networks are made up of small vessels, which may be a simple cosmetic defect, or may serve as a signal for the appearance of varicose veins.
To find out if you are at risk of varicose veins, it is recommended to consult a doctor. The doctor will also advise the method of treatment to be used for the vascular networks. Another symptom of varicose veins is swelling of the legs. However, the legs can swell in other diseases (kidney disease, heart disease, etc. ), so these diseases must be ruled out first. And finally, the most unpleasant and indicative symptom of varicose veins is pain in the legs. The pain usually appears in the afternoon, in a field of great physical exertion. The calf muscles ache, the pain pulls and is not very strong.
So if you have these symptoms: spider veins, swelling, leg pain, you should see a doctor.
Medical treatment of varicose veins in the legs
There are many effective drugs in the initial stages of treatment of varicose veins of the legs. These are the so-called venotonic drugs. They give tangible results only in complex therapy. Therefore, to enhance the effect of venotonics, patients with varicose veins should constantly wear compression stockings. These are special stockings, stockings and stockings. They gently compress the diseased limb without squeezing the vessels. Thus, the veins receive additional tone, and the disease develops more slowly.
However, special attention is paid to the fact that drug treatment cannot completely eliminate varicose veins. This is just a decrease in venous insufficiency, prevention of thrombophlebitis (which often complicates the lives of people with advanced varicose veins on the legs).
The doctor may advise the patient to undergo a course of lymphatic drainage. This is a special massage done manually or by hardware. After lymphatic drainage, the swelling subsides, the outflow of blood and lymph from the lower extremities improves. However, the effect of this procedure is temporary, short-lived, so it is impossible to refuse taking venotonics and wearing compression stockings.
Folk remedies in the treatment of varicose veins.
In addition to medical treatment of varicose veins, you can try using home remedies. So a shower gives a good effect. Little by little, over several days, it is necessary to massage the legs with a stream of water from the shower. Every day, lowering the water temperature a little, it will gradually switch to cold water, and this will give you the most significant result. If it is difficult to pour yourself cold water, organize a contrast shower for yourself: turn on hot, and then cold water for a few seconds, and you need to finish the procedure with cold water. After such a shower, the legs should turn red. Rub them with a towel and grease with a nourishing cream.
Foot baths are helpful. Keep in mind that with varicose veins, you can not take hot baths.
So that your legs do not get tired during the day, make a bath according to this recipe in the morning. Birch, nettle and burdock leaves (each take 1 tablespoon) are brewed with 1 liter of boiling water and infused for half an hour. Then the resulting broth must be diluted with warm water (so that it reaches body temperature) and you can take a bath. Keep the feet in the decoction for at least 20 minutes.
Tones the vessels of the legs and a bath of lemon balm, oregano, chamomile and nettle. Take 2 cups of the mixture (mix all the herbs in equal parts) and prepare with a liter of boiling water. After infusing the broth, add 2 liters of water and keep your feet in a warm bath for 20 minutes.
Keep in mind that folk remedies cannot completely treat varicose veins, they will only stop their development.
What is sclerotherapy?
Sclerotherapy is one of the most effective non-surgical treatments for varicose veins. The essence of the method lies in the fact that the doctor injects a special drug into the vein changed by varicose veins. This drug causes destruction of the inner layer of the vein, and then the vein gradually coalesces and resolves over a period of 1. 5 years. Blood circulation begins to pass through healthy veins. The treatment requires 3 to 6 sessions of sclerotherapy for each leg. After sclerotherapy sessions, you will see the result only after 2-8 weeks, and during all this time there may be unpleasant phenomena: bruising, tingling, pain. But over time, this will pass and the swollen veins will disappear. The drug is selected by the doctor individually for each patient, so the risk of side effects and complications is minimal. After high-quality sclerotherapy, varicose veins rarely recur.
If sclerotherapy is done with an ultrasound scanner, then it is called echosclerotherapy. This method is better because the scanner allows the doctor to fully control the movement of the syringe in the vein and monitor the even distribution of the drug.
Foam sclerotherapy is a method in which a drug is injected in the form of microfoam into the affected vein. The microfoam has a closer contact with the walls of the vein and this leads to a higher efficiency of this method. The microfoam expels the blood from the vein and therefore the vein sticks and stops working faster. In addition, the blood expelled from the vein does not dilute the drug, as in conventional sclerotherapy, so the drug works more effectively.
varicose vein operations
One of the most modern surgical methods for the treatment of varicose veins of the legs is an operation under tumescent anesthesia. It is a type of local anesthesia based on a mixture of natural anesthetics. This method has many advantages: the patient leaves the clinic within 2 hours after the operation, there are almost no postoperative bruises, there is no intoxication that occurs with general anesthesia. The vein is radically removed, the effect persists for many years.
Operations under general anesthesia are no less effective, with the only difference that patients tolerate local anesthesia much more easily than general anesthesia.
Miniphlebectomy: This operation is performed under local anesthesia. The doctor makes punctures through which he removes varicose tributaries from the veins. This operation can serve as a substitute for sclerotherapy in some cases. Patients recover quickly, there are no scars, and compression stockings should only be worn for 1-2 weeks.
Short stripping: This method involves removing not the entire vein, but only the affected area. The doctor determines the exact position of the diseased vein, its length, then two small incisions are made through which the varicose vein is removed. The operation turns out to be short, the soft tissues of the leg are not cut; this allows the patient to recover quickly and not experience pain after the operation.
The endoscopic vein dissection method is now widely used. In simple words, an incision is made in the affected vein, into which an endoscope is inserted. The doctor gets a chance to see inside the affected vein. Moving the endoscope, the doctor finds out the length of the varicose vein, and then cuts it. The advantages of this method are that the doctor sees everything he does, this allows him not to make mistakes and minimize the trauma that the patient inevitably receives during the operation. This is a very promising method of treating varicose veins, since the consequence of such an operation is a gradual decrease in venous insufficiency and an improvement in the condition of the veins.
Intravascular laser coagulation is another non-traumatic method for treating varicose veins. An ultrasound monitors the introduction of a light guide into the vein. The light guide is then moved to the point where the vein enters the deep venous system. A laser is turned on, under the action of which the blood plasma boils, and the diseased vein is safely closed and stops working.
Very often, varicose veins suffer from generation to generation. Doctors do not know exactly why the disease occurs, but they believe that those whose grandmothers and mothers had varicose veins should take special care of their legs. As preventive measures, it is recommended to run, swim, give yourself a massage in the shower, try not to put on too much weight, eat well and. . . never get discouraged!