What are varicose veins

Hello, short video on varicose veins, what are they and what problems they cause. So, these are swollen, enlarged veins found in the legs. They can be blue or purple in colour and appear lumpy or bulging. In terms of the venous system of the leg, there are two systems. One of the deep veins that run inside the muscles deep in the leg. And the other system are the superficial veins. run under the skin and join the teeth veins at junction points. In terms of the superficial veins, the ones that run under the skin, you can't necessarily see these and there are two. One is called the great saphenous vein that runs along the inside border of the leg and one is a short saphenous vein which runs behind the calf. they are. Now the long or great saphenous vein joins the deep veins in the groin. There's a junction at the groin which empties the blood out from the great or long saphenous vein into the deep veins. And then the short saphenous vein joins the deep veins behind the knee in what we call the puppeteer fossa. The deep veins can't be fixed if the valves inside them fail. The valves are very important to maintain the blood flow from the foot back to the heart. If the valves don't function properly, then the blood flows the wrong way down to the foot under the force of gravity. The cause of varicose veins, these valves that we're talking about that keep the blood flowing in the correct direction back to the heart can fail. And if they do fail because the vein becomes stretched out, for instance, the valve leaflets or parts of the valve don't meet in the middle anymore. If they don't meet in the middle anymore, when the calf muscle squeezes the blood back up to the heart, it refluxes or flows in the reverse direction when it shouldn't, back down to the foot. That causes higher pressure in the veins, leading to these sort of symptoms of heaviness and swelling and discomfort. Potentially the high pressure in these veins cause fluid and also cells to leak out. The cells can break down under the skin causing inflammation and tissue damage and this can lead to pigmentation called haemocidarin deposition. It can also lead to swelling and aching. And this is a nice graphic showing what sort of symptoms you can get in terms of leg heaviness, swelling and potentially itchy skin.