Are Varicose Veins just cosmetic or will they cause problems?

If you have read the page on the causes of varicose veins, you will already know that no doctor or nurse - even if a specialist - can really tell if varicose veins are 'only cosmetic' unless they undertake a specialist Duplex Ultrasound scan.

Without a Duplex Ultrasound scan, the only things you can diagnose with reasonable confidence are:

• aching of legs due to varicose veins
• large varicose veins bulging the skin
• itchy skin over varicose veins
• red itchy skin by the ankle due to varicose veins
• brown skin around the ankle due to varicose veins
• swollen ankles due to varicose veins
• bleeding from a leg varicose vein
• hard inflamed lump in a varicose vein
• non-healing wound or leg ulcer in a leg with varicose veins
  

These are almost always signs of true medical varicose veins that need treatment.

Very occasionally, these same symptoms can occur for other reasons. However, to find this out we need to scan the veins with a Duplex Ultrasound and then, if the underlying cause for varicose veins is found (venous reflux), this will have to be treated.

Once treated, if the symptoms don't settle down, then other causes can be looked for, knowing that venous reflux or varicose veins has been excluded as a cause.

Occasionally patients will have very small green veins under the skin (reticular veins) or thread veins which are usually red, purple or blue. The temptation for patients is to think that these are cosmetic only and they can go to a cosmetic clinic for treatment - or even for doctors or nurses to (incorrectly) reassure patients that the veins they can see are 'cosmetic' only.

Unfortunately research has shown that over 8 out of 10 people with these surface veins actually have underlying varicose veins (underlying venous reflux) if a Duplex Ultrasound is performed by a specialist vein clinic.

Therefore, of the people who come to us for advice about their veins, about 95% are actually medical varicose veins that will cause a problem if left alone and only about 5% are just cosmetic only - even when many patients themselves think they only have a 'cosmetic' problem.

It is important to know:

• Most veins we see have an underlying venous reflux problem that needs treatment even if the patient or referring doctor thinks it is a 'cosmetic' problem only
• A specialist can tell if there is a medical problem by examining the leg
• NO-ONE can tell there ISN'T a medical problem without a Duplex Ultrasound scan performed by a venous specialist

Therefore no-one should think - or be told - that their veins are only 'cosmetic' unless they have had a Duplex Ultrasound scan performed by a venous expert that shows this to be the case.

To see if you have varicose veins, or book an appointment please contact us.