Venous Disease & Treatments at South Miami Heart Center

Understanding Diseases of the Veins

The best way to understand how disorders of the veins, also known as venous diseases, affect the body is to first understand how the circulatory system works. Your circulatory system is composed of a network of blood vessels known as arteries and veins. These vessels carry blood throughout your body. With every heartbeat, arteries carry oxygen-rich blood from your heart while veins carry oxygen-poor blood back to your heart.

Within your veins are one-way valves that open and close in response to muscle contraction and relaxation and only allow blood to move toward the heart. With venous disease, the valves may not close completely. When this happens, blood flows in both directions or leaks backward through the valve.

Types of Venous Diseases

Diseases of the veins can be sudden (acute) or chronic. The types of venous disease and their causes and symptoms follow:

Acute Venous Disease

Acute venous disease is due to the formation of blood clots within veins. This can be caused by poor blood flow in the veins, injury to the veins or abnormally easy clotting, also known as hypercoagulability. Poor blood flow in the veins could be due to inactivity from illness, surgery, extended car or plane trips or from pre-existing varicose veins. Direct injury to veins makes them more prone to form clots. Hypercoagulability may be caused by a family history, smoking, hormone replacement therapy or birth control pills, pregnancy or cancer.

• Superficial venous thrombosis or phlebitis is caused by blood clots forming in a vein just under the skin. The vein then becomes inflamed. While usually not dangerous, phlebitis can be painful. Symptoms include tenderness, redness, pain, swelling, itching or low-grade fever.
• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurs when a blood clot forms in a vein deep in the arms, legs or trunk of the body. If the clot loosens and travels through the bloodstream, it can lodge in vessels in the lung, a condition known as pulmonary embolism. This condition can be fatal. DVT symptoms include leg swelling, pain, redness, tenderness or warmth.

Symptoms commonly associated with pulmonary embolism include shortness of breath, chest pain, lightheadedness, anxiety, sweating, clammy skin, palpitations, coughing up blood, low blood pressure or weak pulse.

Chronic Venous Disease

Chronic venous disease can be due to persistent blockages of veins from blood clots or from valves that have stopped working properly due to a heredity, pregnancy, prolonged standing, or previous blood clots that have damaged the valves. Symptoms can be mild, such as painless varicose veins, but may progress to cause leg heaviness and aching, swelling and skin damage, including hardening, discoloration and ulcers (wounds).

Varicose Veins

Varicose veins occur when veins and their valves weaken, becoming enlarged, elongated and often more visible. Varicose veins happen for several reasons: aging, heredity, pregnancy, being overweight or from pressure caused by standing for long periods of time. Symptoms can be mild (pain, burning, aching or tired legs, swollen feet or ankles) or serious (leg swelling, skin changes, bleeding or open sores). Varicose veins are indicators of venous disease and should be treated by a vascular specialist. In contrast, spider veins, while cosmetically unattractive, are not serious.

Treatment Options

To properly diagnose and treat diseases of the veins, the specialists at South Miami Heart Center and the Wound Center perform non-invasive vascular studies. Depending on the disease type and severity, treatment may be surgical or nonsurgical, with the goal of reducing symptoms and lowering the risk of complications. Treatment options for chronic venous disease include compression stockings and wound care, minimally invasive techniques such as laser treatment of veins with poorly-functioning valves, removal of varicose veins with minimal incisions, and injection sclerotherapy for smaller varicose veins. Acute venous disease in the deep veins is usually treated with anticoagulation medications, but sometimes a protective filter placed inside the veins to prevent clots from reaching the lung or surgical removal of clots and clot-dissolving medication inserted by a catheter may be required.

South Miami Heart Center’s Anticoagulation Clinic is staffed by specialists trained to treat DVT, pulmonary embolism and other heart diseases. The hospital’s Wound Center staff specializes in the treatment of chronic, non-healing wounds, including those caused by chronic diseases of the veins. Together, they present a strong defense against the dangers of venous disease.

Physician Referral

Get an online referral to a South Miami Heart Center physician or call the South Miami Heart Center Physician Referral line at 786-662-2222.