Many people seem to think that varicose veins problems affect older people or women after pregnancy. A large number our younger patients, who are otherwise fit and well, often express great surprise that they have varicose veins, as if they are “too young” to get them.
As such, it should not be much of a surprise to find that many parents completely miss quite significant varicose veins on their children’s legs, assuming that the bulges that they can see could not possibly be varicose veins.
Fortunately, severe varicose veins needing treatment is not common in children. However, as with all medical conditions, if varicose veins are present and if they are starting to cause symptoms or tissue damage, they should be investigated fully by a duplex ultrasound scan regardless of the age of the patient. In addition, any treatment required should also be based upon the severity of the veins and the duplex ultrasound scan, not based on whether the patient is a child or an adult.
A few years back, a mother and father, both of whom had been treated at The Whiteley Clinic for their severe varicose veins, brought their 12-year-old son in for assessment. He had very large bulging varicose veins on both legs which, when he lay down and elevated his legs, disappeared. Duplex ultrasound scanning showed that he had lost the valves in all four of his major truncal veins which were all massively dilated.
Despite being only 12 years old, his veins responded exactly the same as any adults do to treatment. The biggest difference came when we phoned up the day following surgery to check he was all right, to find he was already out playing football with his friends!
Over the last decade, we have treated numerous 15, 16 and 17-year-olds patients with severe varicose veins. Of course this is a very small proportion of the total number of patients we have treated but it does show that this condition can affect children and young adults.
If you have any concerns regarding your children and varicose or thread veins and would like to know more about treatment, please contact us at info@thewhiteleyclinic.co.uk or 01483 477 180
0330 058 1850
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