What is Chronic Venous Insufficiency?
Chronic venous insufficiency is a circulation problem caused by the valves in your leg veins. These valves enforce a one-way system around your veins, ensuring blood flows back to your heart and preventing it from flowing the wrong way.
If the valves aren’t working correctly, blood can flow the wrong way back down the veins. Without treatment, chronic venous insufficiency can cause:
- Pain
- Swelling
- Cramping
- Skin changes
- Varicose veins
- Leg ulcers
The Hamilton Vascular team specializes in treating conditions like chronic venous insufficiency, preventing them from affecting your quality of life.
What Causes Chronic Venous Insufficiency?
You’re more likely to have weak valves when you get older, so age is a leading risk factor for chronic venous insufficiency. Other causes and contributing factors include:
- Smoking
- Lack of exercise
- Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
- Phlebitis
- Being overweight
- Pregnancy
- Family history of vein problems
- Old leg injuries
- Previous leg surgeries
If you regularly sit or stand for long periods — for example at work — this can lead to high blood pressure in the leg veins, which can cause chronic venous insufficiency.
To make a diagnosis, your provider at Hamilton Vascular performs a physical exam and looks at your medical history. You might need to have a test called a Duplex ultrasound that produces images of your veins and the way your blood flows.
What Treatments are there for Chronic Venous Insufficiency?
To treat your chronic venous insufficiency successfully, your provider at Hamilton Vascular creates a personalized care plan for you that takes into account your age, general health, and the severity of your condition.
Self-help is important when treating chronic venous insufficiency. You can improve the health of your legs by getting more exercise, avoiding risk factors like smoking, and losing weight. Wearing compression hose can also help improve blood flow back up your legs.
Medications such as venoactive drugs can improve blood flow and help heal leg ulcers. Other treatments for chronic venous insufficiency include:
- Radiofrequency Ablation: Radiofrequency ablation is considered the gold standard treatment for chronic venous insufficiency. It’s straightforward, extremely effective, and minimally invasive. A radiofrequency ablation treatment session at Hamilton Vascular takes just 20 minutes. Your provider inserts a tiny tube called a catheter into the affected vein, which generates radiofrequency waves. The heat from the radiofrequency waves collapses the vein and your body reroutes blood flow through other healthy veins.
- Sclerotherapy: Sclerotherapy works on similar principles to radiofrequency ablation in that it causes the vein to collapse. However, sclerotherapy uses a chemical solution injected into the vein rather than radiofrequency waves to cause the collapse.
- Phlebectomy: Phlebectomy is a minimally invasive way to remove problem veins near the surface of your legs. The team at Hamilton Vascular might use phlebectomy after radiofrequency ablation treatment.
If you have chronic venous insufficiency or any other circulatory problems in your legs, call the Hamilton Vascular office nearest you or book an appointment online today.
