What are venous stasis leg ulcers? Complications of Venous Insufficiency | Texas Endovascular

Venous Stasis Leg Ulcers can form after longstanding untreated varicose veins.

It results from a combination of back pressure from venous insufficiency (vein refluxing and pooling in the legs) and chronic inflammation which leads to scaring and ultimately ulcer formation.

Dr. Eric Hardee and William C. Fox are vascular interventional radiologists who founded Texas Endovascular with locations in Houston areas (Bellaire, Sugar Land, and Katy).

Transcript:
venous stasis ulcers or a direct result
of long-standing crime venous disease
chronic venous insufficiency when you
have backwards flow of the veins the
venous blood pools in the legs and in
addition to causing swelling and other
symptoms over time it starts this
chronic inflammatory reaction that
damages the skin and the tissues under
the skin it leads to low oxygen levels
without proper oxygen levels and the
tissues of your legs when you get any
kind of scrape cut any kind of damage to
the skin you won't be able to heal it
properly and eventually the skin and the
tissues under the skin breaks down and
can form non healing chronic venous
ulcers whenever the veins aren't
functioning properly the venous blood
begins to build up in the legs the
venous blood is the used blood it's
giving up the oxygen the nutrients has
taken up what we call the byproducts of
metabolism but basically the toxins that
are in the body that are supposed to
then get flushed out of your legs go
back to your liver go back to your
kidneys get cleaned out and recirculated
when the veins are malfunctioning and
the valves are leaking all of those
toxins leak out in the tissues and cause
irritation or the medical term is
inflammation and overtime what that
results in is it actually results in
replacement of a normal skin tissue with
the scar tissue the scar tissue is even
worse blood flow and then you have
really a ramped up inflammatory response
and so when you gets one small wound it
could be a bug bite it could be a
scratch your inflammatory response is so
extreme that then is instead of the
wound closing up like it normally would
it actually begins to grow patients with
venous stasis ulcers won't typically
have ulcers for a month two years
they'll end up at the primary care
doctor some end up at wound care clinics
once they get referred to us we will
identify the abnormal veins and their
legs and begin treatment by closing down
the abnormal veins which eliminates the
venous stasis eliminates the venous
congestion that leads to the venous
ulcers