Venous Obstruction Austin

Venous obstruction is of two types in general. It can be either occlusive (completely blocked), or it can be non-occlusive (not completely blocked). For more information on venous obstruction, go to the Austin, Texas vein treatment center, All In Veins, to see Dr. John Hovorka. This is the easiest way for most people to understand it.

Veins as a road system:

For Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI) and venous obstruction as it affects the legs it is best to think of the veins as a road system. The veins in the leg below the knee are like county roads, in the thigh they are like state roads and the veins in the pelvis and abdomen area leading to the heart are like interstate highways. If one vein that is an interstate highway vein is partially blocked (like on a highway when there is a wreck and only one lane is blocked) the traffic can be backed up for a long way. This is the case even though the vein or the highway is not completely blocked.

Signs of Venous Obstruction:

Signs of venous obstruction can include swelling as well as skin changes. Symptoms include classical orthostatic pain (pain in the leg when you are standing up and relieved when lying down and we are talking about the whole leg not just limited to some veins). Symptoms can also include any of the other symptoms of venous disease. Venous obstruction if you have not had a clot or if it is limited to one small area in the "interstate highway veins" is called non-thrombotic (generally referred to as primary disease although it can be congenital or present from birth as well. If you have had a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or if the area of narrowing is continuous it is called thrombotic (or secondary).

Although venous obstruction is actually quite common the non-thrombotic type of problems in the interstate highway veins are usually only a problem when something else happens. This something else could be menopause, or an accident, or a blood clot, or simply worsening of Chronic Venous Disease CVD to the point that it becomes Chronic Venous Insufficiency CVI. In fact, in the 21st century many patients with post-menopausal leg swelling actually have non-occlusive and non-thrombotic venous obstruction that can be effectively treated by endovenous angioplasty and stenting! In order to screen patients for venous obstruction as well as decide when further examination or consideration of treatment should occur all patients are asked to fill out various surveys. These are also known as Quality of Life (QoL) surveys.

At All in Veins we are interested in research on the subject and it is important to understand what symptoms patients have early in life and what changes in symptoms they have that occur over time. Venous obstruction can be seen using ultrasound. Unfortunately the ultrasound outside of the body is actually quite poor at identifying the presence or absence as well as the type of obstruction. The gold standard for evaluation of the anatomy of veins has been venography (a type of angiography or dye test) and it is being replaced by IntraVascular Ultrasound or IVUS.

 If a patient has CVI as well as significant symptoms of venous disease and wants relief of those symptoms we believe that the best approach is to offer IVUS in order to determine exactly the anatomy of the problem. Unfortunately, even with CT scan and CT angiography and current MRI technology there is still no good non-invasive test to evaluate venous obstruction. Venous obstruction has been graded into four different grades using invasive testing. The good news is that most patients with venous obstruction can be evaluated in a clinic setting and treatment can often be done in a clinic!

Navigation

• Home
• About Dr. Hovorka
• About Our Practice
• Vein Procedures
• Cosmetic Vein Treatment
• Vein Conditions
• Cosmetic Procedures
• FAQ's
• Dr. Hovorka's RealSelf Answers
• Blog