Varicose Veins – Small Saphenous Vein

Transcript

“The second important vein is called the small saphenous vein. And this vein is a little shorter. This vein begins at the back of your leg or the foot by your Achilles tendon area. And the vein runs up over your calf and dives down and joins the deep system by your knee. Not by, they can only lay the great saphenous vein but this small actually joins the deep system by your knee. And that’s where it ends. This is the normal anatomy for most people. There’s a few variations, but I’m making a point to describe these because if those two veins are healthy, usually your vein problem is non-existent or fairly trivial. If those veins are affected, then the varicose vein problem becomes bigger and bigger, and those veins can be mildly affected or severely affected. Why do I mean with affection? Normally you’re not supposed to see your saphenous veins, either the smaller the grade with the naked eye.

Once you see it. And once you see those ropey twist and turn veins that go anywhere from the tip of your toes, to your groin, that is abnormal, and that is called varicose veins. And this can be all the way from asymptomatic people who only have them, but have no symptoms whatsoever, to very catastrophic results, which can be the development of an ulcer. A venous ulcer is a big sore in your leg. Usually the inner side of your ankle, not necessarily but usually there, and those veins or those ulcers are very difficult to treat. They stay there for months, and they’re very costly for society in general, to provide dressing changes every day, allowing these veins, these ulcers to close. If they ever close a number of months after they are developed, the problem is not only that, but the problem is once you get them to heal, if you don’t treat the background problem, they also can open again. And that can become a lifelong problem for these patients. And so you can have these ulcers as the extreme of the condition, to people who just have varicose veins are never bothered by them as the other extreme of the condition.”