Chronic Venous Insufficiency: All you need to know

The White Home introduced, on Thursday, July 17, 2025, that United States President Donald Trump had been diagnosed with power venous insufficiency. This got here after he was evaluated by his physician over swelling in his decrease legs. The White Home additionally mentioned there was “no proof” of extra critical situations and extra exams recognized “no indicators of coronary heart failure, renal impairment or systemic sickness.”

Right here is all you want to know concerning the situation.

What’s power venous insufficiency?

Continual venous insufficiency (CVI) is a venous illness — a situation that happens when veins within the physique are broken and don’t work as they need to. Venous illnesses are pretty frequent situations and have an effect on thousands and thousands worldwide.

Veins are answerable for carrying blood from numerous elements of the physique to the center. Veins have valves in them that enable the blood to stream in a single path. If the valves are broken, blood might leak backward or transfer in each instructions. In power venous insufficiency, the veins within the legs will not be capable of carry blood again to the center because of broken valves, leading to a stream backward, inflicting blood to gather or pool within the legs.

Why does it happen?

Danger elements for CVI embrace age (being over 50), being obese, having a household historical past of the situation, lack of train, smoking, earlier damage to the leg, hypertension within the leg veins prompted over time because of standing or sitting for extended durations or being pregnant. Some individuals could also be born with valve malfunctions.

One frequent reason for CVI is deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT is a blood clot that happens in a deep vein within the physique. These clots can harm the valves within the leg vein, inflicting CVI. In President Trump’s case nonetheless, the White Home mentioned there “no proof” of extra critical situations similar to deep vein thrombosis or arterial illness. 

What are the indicators and signs of CVI?

Signs of CVI embrace: swelling within the decrease legs or ankles (oedema), ache whereas strolling that stops while you relaxation, a good, full feeling within the legs, burning, itching or tingling legs, brown, leathery trying pores and skin close to the ankles, flaking pores and skin, stressed leg syndrome, leg cramps, varicose veins and leg ulcers (open sores).

Not all the signs will seem without delay. Signs rely upon how far the situation has progressed.

What occurs to the physique with CVI?

Untreated CVI could cause ache, cramps and swelling. If untreated, the stress in veins can enhance, making tiny blood vessels, known as capillaries, burst. This causes pores and skin discolouration and can even result in tissue harm.

Leg ulcers are one other problem. Generally leg ulcers attributable to CVI are laborious to deal with. If these ulcers get contaminated, the an infection can unfold to close by tissue, inflicting issues.

What’s the remedy for CVI?

Remedy for CVI relies on the person’s total well being and the seriousness of the situation, amongst different elements. Remedy might embrace treatment, life-style adjustments and compression remedy. Remedy is mostly geared toward bettering blood stream within the leg veins.

Life-style adjustments might embrace train, together with strolling, and workouts for the ft and ankles. Train helps enhance blood stream. Elevation could also be really helpful: protecting the legs raised (elevated) above the extent of the center might assist enhance blood stream and scale back swelling.

Compression remedy: This entails bandages or stockings of assorted varieties and are geared toward easing the swelling within the legs. Drugs to assist enhance blood stream and to deal with ulcers could also be prescribed.

Different non-surgical therapies embrace endovenous laser ablation or radiofrequency ablation: on this process, a catheter is used to focus on the affected vein with warmth, both with a laser or high-frequency radiowaves. This helps to shut the broken vein.One other process generally known as sclerotherapy entails within the injection of a chemical into the diseased vein, inflicting it to break down so it may well not carry blood.