Venous Oedema

What is Venous Oedema?

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) is a common chronic condition,
particularly in those of advancing years. It is characterised by lower leg
oedema, heaviness, tightness, aching and discomfort, all of which are
relieved, to some extent, by elevation. This oedema is called venous
oedema.

One way valves situated every few millimetres in the veins assist the
heart to pump blood back to the heart. With increasing age and other
factors such as being overweight, chronic heart failure, hypertension,
pregnancy, deep vein thrombosis or an excessive amount of standing,
an additional strain is placed on the leg veins by the resultant high
gravitational forces causing them to dilate. This, in turn, makes the
valves less effective in the process of returning blood to the heart by
allowing backflow of blood to occur and collection or "pooling" of blood in
the calves. The valves become non-functional and the veins misshapen.
These are termed varicose veins. They cause stagnation of blood in the
calves and an increased amount of fluid to pass from the blood
capillaries into the tissues and the onset of oedema. As the condition
progresses, the lymphatic drainage from the legs becomes overloaded
and the condition of the skin deteriorates. It becomes pigmented, dry,
fragile, easily breaking down and becoming infected, leading to
ulceration.

What is the Treatment of Venous Oedema?

Vascular surgery does not always provide long term relief for CVI.
However, compression therapy has been shown to be effective in
improving venous and lymphatic drainage from lower limbs, as well as
keeping oedema under control.

Mild to moderate oedema is treated by fitting low to medium
compression calf stockings.

Moderate to severe oedema require multi-layer bandaging for a few days
to reduce the oedema before fitting stockings.