Venous Reflux Specialist

What is venous reflux?

Venous reflux or chronic venous insufficiency is a disorder that affects the circulation in your legs and is a common cause of varicose veins.

It starts when the valves in your leg veins stop working as they should. The valves are there to prevent blood from traveling the wrong way down your legs, but if they're too weak to form a proper seal, blood can leak back and build up along the veins.

Contributing factors to venous reflux include:

• Weak leg muscles
• Being overweight or obese
• Having a deep vein thrombosis (DVT)

Venous reflux is more likely to affect you if other members of your family have the disease or problems like varicose veins.

What symptoms does venous reflux cause?  

Venous reflux is most likely to affect your legs, although it can occur elsewhere. Common symptoms include:

• Swollen legs and ankles
• Leg cramps
• Throbbing legs
• Aching legs
• Heaviness
• Itchiness
• Thickened skin
• Skin discoloration, particularly around the ankles

Pain from venous reflux tends to worsen if you walk, sit, or stand for long periods but gets better if you rest, especially if you raise your legs.

More advanced cases of venous reflux might cause leg ulcers. These open sores can be resistant to healing and cause significant distress and disability. To avoid ulcers and infections that might lead to amputation, see Dr. Hager if you have symptoms of venous reflux.

How is venous reflux treated? 

Initial treatments for venous reflux are likely to be conservative, for example:

• Losing weight
• Getting more exercise
• Elevating your legs when possible
• Wearing compression stockings

These actions are important to help prevent your venous reflux from getting worse. To treat the already damaged veins, Dr. Hager might use one of three methods:

Radiofrequency ablation  

Radiofrequency ablation treatments like ClosureFast are straightforward, effective, and cause minimal scarring. Dr. Hager makes a small incision in your leg, then uses advanced imaging technology to guide a tiny tube (catheter) up the vein.

When the catheter is in position, it sends out radiofrequency waves that heat the vein, so it collapses.

Sclerotherapy

With sclerotherapy, Dr. Hager injects a substance called a sclerosant into the diseased veins. The sclerosant is a chemical liquid or foam that collapses the vein.

Phlebectomy 

Phlebectomy is suitable for treating larger veins. In this procedure, Dr. Hager pulls out the problem veins through tiny incisions.

The blood that normally goes through a treated vein diverts along alternative blood vessels, so you won't have any problems with decreased circulation — in fact, with the poorly functioning veins gone, your circulation should improve significantly.

To find out more about treating venous reflux and having healthier legs, call Hager Advanced Vein Care today or book an appointment online.