Why are patients with Varicose Veins more likely to bleed?

Why are people with varicose veins more likely to develop bleeding? Varicose veins are dilated and tortuous veins lying close to the skin of the lower limb. Within these veins the valves are not working properly so blood is pooling back in the leg. This causes an increase increasing pressure in the veins themselves, we refer to this as venous hypertension. What this means is that the vein wall is stretched and damaged and more likely to be susceptible to bleeding. So with this increased likelihood to bleed, with the increased pressure it means that bleeding from varicose veins can be very brisk and can be quite dangerous.