Venous insufficiency is a venous disease in which veins of the lower extremity become so damaged that they fail to manage blood flow as well as they should. The blood in the legs struggles to return to the heart and pools in your leg veins, leading to high blood pressure in the damaged veins.
Any of your leg veins – deep, superficial, and perforating veins – can be affected by venous insufficiency. At first, venous insufficiency causes mild symptoms, but over time, the symptoms become so severe that they start to interfere with your quality of life.
Here we’ll discuss some common approaches to venous insufficiency treatment.
Venous Insufficiency Treatment
Typically, the goals of venous insufficiency treatment are to:
- Improve your blood flow
- Heal and prevent ulcers
- Improve the skin texture and appearance
- Reduce symptoms like pain and swelling
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to treating venous insufficiency. So, your primary care doctor will use a combination of the following approaches depending on your age, medical history, risk factors, and overall health.
Lifestyle Changes
Lifestyle changes are the first approach to venous insufficiency treatment and include:
- Leg elevation
Lifting your legs for 30 minutes, three times a day, can help reduce pressure in your leg veins.
- Exercise
Exercise can also improve blood flow in your leg veins. Even the simplest exercise, such as walking, will squeeze your calf muscles and help the veins pump blood to the heart. Your doctor may also recommend you do some foot and ankle flexing exercises. Exercises that strengthen the calf muscles will also improve blood flow.
- Weight management
The more you weigh, the more pressure you put on your veins, which can damage the valves of your veins. So, if your BMI (body mass index) is higher, try to achieve a healthy weight.
Compression Therapy
Another approach to treating venous insufficiency is compression therapy. Compression therapy eases swelling and discomfort in your legs. You can ask your doctor for the type of compression stockings or bandages that will work best for you.
If stockings fail to provide you relief, your doctor may suggest intermittent pneumatic compression – a device with inflatable sleeves. The inflatable sleeves you wear on your legs help the blood flow through your veins.
Medications
Your primary care doctor may also recommend some medications to ease the painful symptoms of venous insufficiency. In combination with compression therapy, medications can increase the blood flow of the veins and improve venous insufficiency symptoms.
Antibiotics and anticoagulant drugs are often prescribed by doctors for chronic venous insufficiency.
Medical Procedures
Your primary care doctor may also recommend various nonsurgical and surgical treatments for chronic venous insufficiency.
- Nonsurgical Treatments
Two nonsurgical procedures (sclerotherapy and endovenous thermal ablation) are commonly recommended for the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency. In sclerotherapy, an agent in the form of a foam or liquid is injected into your affected veins, causing the vein to collapse. On the other hand, in endovenous thermal ablation, lasers or high-frequency radio waves heat the diseased vein, causing it to close.
- Surgical Treatments
If your veins no longer respond to nonsurgical treatments, your doctor may consider surgical treatment. Common surgical treatments for chronic venous insufficiency include ligation (the problematic veins are cut and tied off), stripping (surgical removal of the problematic vein), microphlebactomy (a minimally invasive procedure to remove the damaged vein), and vein bypass (use of a healthy vein from other parts of the body to reroute the blood around the damaged vein).
Venous Insufficiency Treatment Near Me in Irmo, SC
If you are having painful vein symptoms and seek personalized treatment from highly qualified providers, look no further than our primary care providers at SC Internal Medicine Associates & Rehabilitation. Our highly qualified and skilled doctors will perform a comprehensive assessment of your vein condition and design a treatment plan according to your needs.
To schedule an appointment with one of our providers, call us today at (803) 749-1111 or fill out our online appointment request form.
