What are the misconceptions about varicose vein treatment in the lower extremities?

Superficial varicose veins of lower extremities are a relatively common venous disease, caused by the incomplete closure of superficial venous valves, with a high incidence, mostly at a young age, manifesting as dilated, bulging and tortuous superficial veins of lower extremities, with the inner side of the calf below the knee as obvious, accompanied by lower extremity soreness, heaviness and discomfort, easily fatigued and weak, aggravated by prolonged standing and after lunch, with a few accompanied by muscle spasm. The effective treatment includes palliative therapy, surgical therapy, injection-compression therapy, minimally invasive therapy, etc. For choosing reasonable and effective methods to prevent and treat varicose veins, many people have certain misconceptions in their understanding. Myth 1: No uncomfortable symptoms that do not need treatment. At the early stage of superficial varicose veins of lower limbs, patients have no obvious discomfort. With the prolongation of the disease, the blood flow in the tortuous varicose veins is slow, and it is difficult to empty the blood, which easily causes local thrombophlebitis and lymphangitis, and the vein wall adheres to the skin, and redness, swelling, heat, pain, etc., and recurrence; the affected calf, especially the ankle, appears nutritional changes, including skin atrophy, pigmentation, desquamation, eczema-like dermatitis, subcutaneous tissue hard knots and ulcer formation (commonly known as old rotten leg). Trauma and other injuries can cause extensive bleeding.  Conservative treatment such as pressure sequential elastic stockings can effectively reduce the symptoms and delay the progress of the disease, suitable for pregnant women, small scope, unwilling to surgery, but can not achieve the purpose of radical treatment, long-term wearing elastic stockings to the patient brought inconvenience, especially in summer.  Myth 2: Blindly promote sclerotherapy, the method is to inject chemical sclerotherapy into varicose veins to destroy the endothelial cells to make the veins fibrous occlusion, in order to achieve the purpose of varicose vein atrophy, its simple operation, little pain, low cost, etc. to meet the psychological needs of patients who do not want surgery and limb “beauty”. Sclerotherapy has a high recurrence rate, and because of the need for multiple injections, common complications include: sclerotherapy allergy, skin blisters, blisters, lamellar necrosis and difficult to heal ulcers; injury to the nerve causing intractable pain in the limb, thrombophlebitis, deep vein thrombosis and even death from pulmonary embolism. At the same time repeatedly repeated injection of sclerotherapy has not healed, to the later then choose surgery to bring greater difficulty and difficult to achieve the desired results.  Sclerotherapy is suitable for superficial venous trunk without reflux or corrected reflux, including mild, isolated and limited, post-surgical residual or recurrent varicose veins and those who can hardly tolerate surgery.  Misconception three: Chinese medicine soaking, external application, etc., choose effective drugs can reduce capillary permeability, improve microcirculation to reduce symptoms such as thrombophlebitis, promote ulcer healing, etc. have certain curative effect, but for superficial venous valve closure insufficiency caused by varicose veins disease itself can not be fundamentally solved, the so-called treatment of the surface not the root; more folk “bloodletting therapy “etc., lack of science and operation standardization, easily cause uncontrollable bleeding and infection in lower limbs, leading to the occurrence of stubborn ulcers.  The current trend of surgical treatment of varicose veins is minimally invasive, characterized by small trauma and good efficacy, and at the same time can meet the needs of patients requiring limb “beauty”. Therefore, it is recommended that the majority of patients suffering from superficial varicose veins in the lower extremities should visit a regular hospital to understand the correct method and receive the correct and reasonable treatment.