Varicose Veins

Under normal circumstances, blood collected from superficial venous capillaries is directed upward and inward via one-way valves into superficial veins. These in turn drain via perforator veins, which pass through muscle fascia into deeper veins buried under the fascia. Leakage in a valve causes retrograde flow back into the vein. Unlike deep veins which are thick-walled and confined by fascia, superficial veins cannot withstand high pressure and eventually become dilated and tortuous. The failure of one valve puts pressure on its neighbours and may result in retrograde flow and hence varicosity of the entire local superficial venous network [1, 2] .