That’s one of the things about gravity: everything is pulled down. This also applies to our blood. To prevent it from building up in the legs, the veins pump the blood back towards the heart. However, this no longer works properly for people with varicose veins, says Dominic Mühlberger. The vascular surgeon at St. Josef Hospital, a clinic of the Ruhr University Bochum explains the process: “Then the vein dilates. This expansion of the vein leads to a malfunction of the venous valves. They act like a valve mechanism . ” And that means they only let blood through in one direction, namely upwards, towards the heart, and not downwards.
–
As the disease progresses, these veins become wider and wider, so that these venous valves cannot close. This then creates the backflow in the wrong direction – towards the leg.
–
–
Then you get what the vernacular calls “heavy legs”, with possibly serious consequences up to leg ulcers and thrombosis. That is why varicose veins have so far been fought radically: The trunk vein is destroyed with lasers, for example, or surgically removed completely. However, years later, this can lead to completely different medical problems, warns Dr. Dominic Mühlberger. “As vascular surgeons, we rely on veins. We use them as our own replacement material, for example for a bypass system.” Vascular surgeons like Mühlberger repeatedly have patients with circulatory disorders in the legs without a usable vein. Then it was often not possible to save the leg, says the doctor.
–
The gentle method of treating varicose veins
That is why the experts have developed an alternative procedure in which the vein-preserving operation is performed, explains the doctor: “We try to preserve the trunk vein by placing a plastic cuff around this vein in the area of the groin, so to speak. This narrows the diameter of the vein and the flaps underneath can then close again. ” A coat made of wafer-thin plastic is inserted over a small cut in the groin and then acts like a compression stocking. The inner compression stocking narrows the weak connective tissue to its normal size. The procedure is a fairly simple operation, says the vascular surgeon. A large study at five German centers showed that this method works in 95 percent of patients.
–
Method is not suitable for everyone
But there is one catch: The method is not suitable for all people with varicose veins. The inner compression stocking is only an option for around 15 to 20 percent of patients: the trunk vein must not yet have changed too much or the disease must not be far advanced. Vascular surgeon Mühlberger recommends, especially for people with risk factors for later circulatory disorders, to check carefully whether the vein-preserving operation is an option. Because experience has shown that the vein could be used again around twenty years after the varicose vein disease.
–
