Vein diseases such as chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) impair both your circulatory system and your immune system. This can mean that tiny nicks, cuts, and bruises that most people wouldn’t think twice about can become painfully and dangerously infected. Understanding this phenomenon becomes important for those who have varicose veins, spider veins, or other venous diseases. Getting the proper care for these wounds should be a priority, because they may not heal on their own the way they do in people with healthy veins.
Wrong. Advanced cases of varicose veins often develop sores and lesions along the swollen veins that don’t seem to respond to topical treatment, antiseptics, and normal care. Instead of getting better, the sores get worse. These lesions – known as leg ulcers – are one of the types of wounds we’re referring to and, just as it seems when you try to treat them yourself at home, they don’t get better and just go away the way you wish they would. They require specialized treatment, often involving treatment of the underlying CVI that is causing them.
Other minor injuries – such as scratches, cuts, nicks from shaving, and bruises from falls – can become equally infected. This can cause pain, but it definitely causes your legs to look less attractive than they should. Who, after all, wants to walk around displaying legs that not only have varicose veins, but are covered with open, sometimes bleeding sores and lesions?
It’s not really a “secret,” more the result of the years of training and experience our vein specialists in Boynton Beach have gained. We understand that the ravages of vein disease and the increased pressure from CVI can create changes in the characteristics of the skin on your legs, making them more susceptible to injury. We also understand that your impaired circulation is going to make those injuries less likely to heal.
That is why the professionals at South Palm Cardiovascular Associates treat wound care as the multi-modality specialty it is. Wound care specialists must look at wounds in those suffering from vein disease from many different angles – treating the wound itself by eliminating unhealthy tissues, and applying local treatments to help the skin heal. Often we must consult with one of our infectious disease specialists to prescribe appropriate antibiotics that will actually work in a patient whose immune system has been compromised by vein disease. And of course we need to constantly monitor each patient’s overall circulation to make sure it is up to par, and not undermining our efforts to help the wound heal properly and quickly.
One of the things that “makes our day” as vein care specialists is treating a patient who has tried to “live with” painful, non-healing wounds for some time, often for months, and be able to offer treatment that allows that wound to heal within a very short time. To our patients it may seem like magic, but to us it’s just the result of the years we’ve spent learning about how to help patients with vein disease.
So if you have varicose veins or other types of vein disease, and you’ve begun to notice open sores, cuts, and wounds that don’t seem to heal, don’t try to “live with them” thinking they’ll heal on their own. Chances are they won’t, unless they are treated properly. Save yourself weeks or months of distress and pain and call the wound care specialists at 561-515-0080 and allow us to help you literally get back on your feet again. You can find more information about wound care and other aspects of vein disease treatment on our website, at http://www.southpalmcardiovascular.com.
