Video: Varicose Veins Are Not Just Cosmetic

Varicose veins: not just cosmetic. Yesterday I spoke about leg pain when walking and how it might be a sign of arterial disease called claudication. Today I want to switch and talk about venous disease. Varicose veins may not just be cosmetic. They may actually represent problems with the valvular system in the veins in your legs.

What the veins do is take blood from the tips of your toes back towards your heart. They do so in a passive system, relying on your calf to pump that blood, and through a series of one-way valves it makes its way back up to your heart. In some people those valves can stop working, and that can cause all manner of different symptoms: heaviness, achiness, swelling in your legs. It can also cause veins to bulge, and when they do bulge, we call those varicose veins. In more severe circumstances you can get skin changes, where the skin turns a brownish colour, and in the most severe instances you can get ulceration as well.

Not all varicose veins require treatment, but again, see a vascular surgeon if any of these symptoms sounds familiar, because it's a very simple investigation. It's an ultrasound scan, which is non-invasive, and that can tell you if your varicose veins are caused by venous reflux or not. Tomorrow I'm going to talk about an entirely different kind of vascular problem that often presents silently, and that is the aortic aneurysm.