CHRONIC VENOUS INSUFFICIENCY
A vascular disease is any abnormal condition affecting the blood vessel network of arteries, veins and capillaries. They affect millions of people every year, either as independent conditions or complications of underlying metabolic diseases.
Chronic venous insufficiency occurs when your leg veins don’t allow blood to flow back up to your heart. Normally, the valves in your veins make sure that blood flows toward your heart. But when these valves don’t work well, blood can also flow backwards. This can cause blood to collect (pool) in your legs. Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is a common cause of leg pain and swelling, and is commonly associated with varicose veins.
Inadequate muscle pump function, incompetent venous valves (reflux), venous thrombosis, or nonthrombotic venous obstruction are causes of elevated venous pressure (venous hypertension), which initiates a sequence of anatomic, physiologic, and histologic changes leading to vein dilation, skin changes, and/or skin ulceration
Affecting a patient’s lower extremities with venous hypertension causing pain, swelling, edema, skin changes, and ulceration, Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI) can severely affect day-to-day life.
If this condition is not treated, you may have:
Chronic venous insufficiency is not a serious health threat. But it can be painful and disabling.
HemorrhoidsHemorrhoids are enlarged or swollen veins in the lower rectum. The most common symptoms of hemorrhoids are rectal bleeding, itching, and pain. You may be able to see or feel hemorrhoids around the outside of the anus, or they may be hidden from view, inside the rectum.
Hemorrhoids are common, occurring in both men and women. Although hemorrhoids do not usually cause serious health problems, they can be annoying and uncomfortable. Fortunately, treatments for hemorrhoids are available and can usually minimize the bothersome symptoms.
Hemorrhoids are more common in people who are older in those who have diarrhea or pelvic tumors, during or after pregnancy, and in people who sit for prolonged periods of time and strain (push hard) to have a bowel movement.
One of the most common causes of hemorrhoids is straining to pass hard, dry stools during bouts of
constipation. Other factors that can lead to hemorrhoids include:
· Straining to lift heavy objects
· Pregnancy
· Obesity
· Sitting for long periods
· Diarrhea
Symptoms of hemorrhoids can include the following:
●Painless rectal bleeding
●Anal itching or pain
●Tissue bulging around the anus
●Leakage of feces or difficulty cleaning after a bowel movement
Microangiopathies are diseases affecting small blood vessels – usually capillaries – and are most common in diabetes patients and usually referred to as diabetic microvascular complications9.
Such microvascular complications can severely damage eyes (retinopathy), kidneys (nephropathy) and nerves (neuropathy):
Diabetic Retinopathy is a microvascular complication of diabetes, its prevalence increasing with the duration of the disease. It is associated with diabetic macular oedema, considered the principal cause of vision loss in working-age diabetic patients, whatever their gender.
Diabetic Nephropathy – or diabetic kidney disease – is another microvascular complication of diabetes, again its prevalence increasing with the duration of the disease. Associated with the chronic deterioration of kidney function characterized by a protein loss in the urine, it is the leading cause of end-stage kidney disease.
Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy – the most common microvascular complication of diabetes – is also more frequent in long-term diabetic patients. Associated with limb and foot disorders, it is the main cause of disability due to foot ulceration and amputation, gait disturbance and fall-related injury.
