In forty per cent of patients, varicose vein are due to hereditary & run into families and generations. The other important causative factors are obesity, lack of exercises, abnormal pressure on veins during pregnancy, abnormal life style, prolonged standing and prolonged sitting with legs down.
Due to advanced age, overweight and lack of exercises, veins of legs become very weak and therefore develop into varicose veins. Due to obesity, a lot of fat gets deposited in the leg. This weakens the support system of veins that result into veins becoming dilated & tortuous.
In today’s modern age, a lot of occupations & professions have sprung up where a person is required to either constantly standup for a long time or made to sit with legs hanging down for a considerable time. Computer professionals, receptionists, security guards, traffic policemen, salesmen working at counters in shops & departmental stores and persons doing desk jobs day in & day out are the worst sufferers of varicose veins. Previous fracture of bone during road traffic accidents, previous deep veins thrombosis or previous incidence of clotting in the veins is the significant contributor to development varicose veins & varicose ulcer.
Dr. K. K. Pandey is a Senior Consultant in Cardiothoracic, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, with nearly 30 years of surgical experience. He has previously worked at Batra Hospital, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi and the Bakulev Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery in Moscow. Dr. Pandey specializes in thoracic, lung and chest tumour surgery, varicose veins, vascular bypass procedures and diabetic foot management, using both open and minimally invasive techniques. A surgeon, writer and health educator, he regularly writes columns and books to make complex medical topics easy for the general public, believing that medical knowledge must reach every common person.