Varicose veins are the most common form of chronic venous insufficiency. Normal veins carry the blood back to the heart and thus the blood in the legs is carried up against gravity. In order to prevent the blood from backing up veins have one-way valves.

Varicose veins are superficial veins with valves that do not work properly. When this happens and people are standing blood circulates downwards (reflux) and pools inside the vein, which subsequently stretches and causes the next valve down below to break.  Due to this domino effect, more and more valves fall apart producing increased vein blood pressure and enlarged and twisted veins.  Eventually more and more varicose veins develop and symptoms appear or aggravate.

If untreated varicose veins evolve into chronic venous insufficiency that produces heaviness, fatigue, leg cramps, ankle swelling and in some cases leg ulceration. This is due to the fact that the skin becomes fragile and pigmented and eventually breaks down causing an open wound.

The DETECT study INV-2006 demonstrated that 62% of the Spanish population has some kind of varicose veins and 38% of them were from moderate to severe (CEAP grade 2-6).  According to data reported in several medical studies 10-15% of men and 20-25% of women suffer from truncal varicose veins. Many factors contribute to the development of varicose veins, among which heredity is the most important. Other factors are gender, pregnancy, occupation, trauma, weight, hormones or previous thrombosis. 

Varicose veins before and after our treatment