Venous insufficiency: causes, symptoms, complications, risks, treatment

When blood in the lower limbs has difficulty returning to the heart and becomes stagnant, it’s called venous insufficiency. What causes it? What are the complications of venous insufficiency? Dr. Katia Salloum, an angiologist, provides answers.@@@

“Venous return is the stage of blood circulation in which oxygen-poor blood flows back from the lower limbs to the heart, where it is oxygenated through the deep and superficial venous system,    ” explains Dr. Salloum.

”    Veins are flexible, extensible vessels with thin walls, unlike arteries. These veins have valves spaced every 4 or 5 mm that force a one-way flow, from the bottom up, to push blood back toward the heart,”    explains Dr. Salloum. In a standing position, blood must defy gravity; this system of valves helps return it to the heart.

What is venous insufficiency? Definition

Venous insufficiency leads to poor venous return. ”    Blood from the veins in the lower extremities has difficulty returning to the heart due to the malfunction of the venous valves, which prevents reflux,    ” explains the angiologist.

“In the case of venous insufficiency, blood accumulates in the veins, and because their walls are thin and elastic, they expand due to stagnation, which causes the veins to dilate and, as a result, the formation of varicose veins,”   he adds.

Symptoms of venous insufficiency

Symptoms of venous insufficiency include a feeling of heaviness in the legs, tingling, an urge to move the lower limbs, and swelling of the ankles, feet, and/or calves. Other characteristic symptoms include the appearance of spider veins or varicose veins (dilated capillaries and veins). Itchy eczema may develop at the site of the varicose veins. The final stage is the formation of a varicose ulcer.