Venous Insufficiency

Veins are the blood vessels in your legs that help bring blood back to the heart. When the leg veins can not longer pump hard enough to bring the blood back to the heart a person can develop chronic venous insufficiency. When you are sitting or standing up, the blood in your leg veins must go against gravity to return to your heart. To accomplish this, your leg muscles squeeze the veins of your legs and feet to help move blood back to your heart while one-way valves in your veins keep blood flowing toward the heart. When your leg muscles relax, these valves inside your veins close which prevents blood from going back down the legs. Over time, the walls of the veins can weaken and the valves can become damaged which cause chronic venous insufficiency. Venous insufficiency may cause leg aches, itching, skin color changes and commonly causes swelling of legs, ankles and feet. Support hose, generally knee length, are commonly used to manage this condition.

Consult your physician before wearing any compression stockings of 20 mmHg and greater.