In order to maintain physiologically correct pressure on the lower limbs, compression stockings are now widely used in the complex treatment and prevention of varicose veins.
In medical literature, this special kind of underwear is also called medical stockings, anti-varicose veins, compression underwear or medical compression stockings.
These are socks that are recommended by phlebologists to treat and prevent various problems with the blood vessels in the legs. Pressure underwear is mainly used for varicose veins, thrombosis, epithelial trophic ulcers, thrombophlebitis, and lymphedema.
- The therapeutic effect of compression underwear is due to the support and squeeze of the dilated veins, which helps redistribute blood flow from the altered, dilated veins to healthy veins.
- Improve tissue nutrition and promote blood circulation
- Most importantly, if used and sized correctly, this sweatshirt can reduce the risk of blood clots.
- It is also very important that without the contraindications of using compression underwear, there are no side effects. This is a safe and simple way to prevent varicose veins and keep the veins in their natural physiological state.
What is the effect of compression tights on varicose veins?
Earlier, before mass production of high-quality medical linen, elastic bandages were widely used, and their use had many disadvantages:
- First of all, they should be applied very correctly every time, this does not always work and it takes a lot of time
- Secondly, the appearance of bandages does not allow them to be worn, for example, for work
- Third, their low prices proved to be deceptive, because the bandages quickly deteriorated, thus offsetting all savings.
What is the effect of using medical medical jerseys? When squeezing the dilated veins, the varicose vein compression suit will speed up the blood flow through the deep veins, thereby eliminating venous congestion. In addition, high-quality modern compression stockings provide a gradual reduction in pressure from calf to thigh, or from hand to shoulder.
For example, in the lower part of the leg, compression stockings or tights can produce a maximum of 100% pressure, while in the upper thigh it is 40%. This is the most favorable, physiologically determined pressure change, and has a therapeutic effect. This pattern of venous pressure distribution stimulates and normalizes the upward blood outflow due to the following reasons:
- Improvement and standardization of valve devices
- Enlarged peripheral lumens, especially the saphenous veins of the thighs and calves
- Increase the action of the muscle pump-when the muscles contract due to physical exertion, the blood will be pushed up.
However, it should be remembered that the treatment of varicose veins with compression cloth does not eliminate the underlying cause of venous insufficiency. It is used before radical surgery. This jersey mimics this situation-the enlarged vein is sealed or removed.
In addition, the non-surgical conservative treatment of leg diseases should be comprehensive. If you use the creams and ointments recommended by your doctor, lead a healthy lifestyle, wear compression stockings or tights every day, and use folk remedies to treat varicose veins, you can get the greatest effect.
Contraindications of using compression stockings
As with any treatment, each therapy or drug has many contraindications, and medical clothing is no exception. Some people should never use pressure suits, and others should use them with caution after a thorough diagnosis and consultation with a doctor. If there are relative contraindications, you should consult a dermatologist, cardiologist, and endocrinologist.
- This kind of underwear is absolutely contraindicated for atherosclerosis, thromboangiitis obliterans, endarteritis, and arteritis. With this chronic disease of the leg arteries, the vascular lumen is reduced and the systolic blood pressure is less than 80 mm. rt. Art. It is absolutely impossible to reduce the pressure of the lower limbs with the help of medical clothes.
- People with excessively sensitive skin should use medical knitwear with caution.
- Compression underwear is not recommended for inflammatory skin diseases, allergic skin reactions, various dermatitis, bedsores, open wounds, acute thrombophlebitis, eczema, etc.
- Diabetes is a relatively contraindication, because if diabetes causes damage to the blood vessels in the legs, this kind of underwear should not be used.
- Infectious phlebitis, severe cardiopulmonary failure, or circulatory disturbances at rest, compression stockings should not be used.
Many people are afraid to start wearing compression underwear, because there is a view that sweatshirts will cause atrophy of the muscle layer of the vein wall. When you stop using it, the opposite negative effect may occur-when the vein wall cannot resist the blood pressure in the vascular cavity. Therefore, due to the atrophy of the vein wall, the existing varicose veins will further develop.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to conduct clinical studies on every compressed vein, but phlebologists believe that this view is wrong because:
- Patients cannot wear pressure suits all day long
- In a compressed vein, blood flow is reduced, rather than stopped completely.
- Muscle wall atrophy most often occurs in genetic predispositions and local specific inflammatory processes, accompanied by venous stasis and venous filling. When using a jersey, all of these will be reduced.
- This can only happen based on the initial feeling of the patient when the linen is stopped. In this case, the condition and health will temporarily deteriorate for a period of time, which is not explained by the atrophy and progression of varicose veins, but by the temporary decrease in the tension of the vein wall.
- Review and feelings of patients with varicose veins after using compression pants-most people find it difficult to get used to walking after using compression stockings. Many people argue that when using medical products, the legs become very light, and many people do not want to give up using them.
How to choose tights
Medical compression underwear, jerseys are divided into: hospitals, only for hospitals, preventive and therapeutic. We will consider in detail the compression level of medical anti-varicose compression stockings, how to choose compression underwear, how to wear and how to care.
The most important point is that you can only buy compression stockings, tights, and knee socks at professional, plastic surgery salons or distributors of well-known brands. Among them, trained personnel know how to accurately choose the size of linen, because the wrong size will make the treatment absolutely ineffective. In the specialty store, the seller will measure the legs in 4 places and choose the size of the tights or stockings according to the special table.
There are 4 degrees of compression:
- 18-21 mm. rt. Art. Compression level 1 is preventive compression, which can and should be continuously worn by the following people: susceptible to varicose veins, pregnant women, people with initial symptoms of varicose veins, when the subcutaneous veins are strongly protruding, if there is leg pain, sedentary or sedentaryAfter standing, if the spider veins are obvious, and the foot and ankle area appear edema at the end of the day, lifestyle and work force them to sit or stand for long periods of healthy people-to office workers, drivers, hairdressers, sales staff.
- 23-32 mm. rt. Art. Compression grade 2 is the best and popular grade for the treatment of thrombophlebitis and varicose veins.
- 34-46 mm. rt. Art. Compression level 3-for nutritional disorders and severe venous insufficiency.
- 49 and more 4 Compression type-rarely used, with lymphedema.
Those who choose anti-varicose knitwear for the first time should not buy expensive second-degree compression underwear immediately, as your vascular system may not be able to bear it. After you walk around wearing cheap underwear for a period of time, you get used to it. If you feel comfortable wearing it, then you can choose better and more expensive compression underwear.
Of course, for prevention, it is worthwhile to use only level 1 compression level underwear, and with the development of varicose veins, the compression level is determined by the phlebologist. Compression underwear cannot cure varicose veins, because the cause of its appearance is very deep, the external influence can only be temporarily shelved, and no further development is allowed. That is, the varicose vein compression tights are to prevent the appearance of new varicose veins. Of course, you can’t wear a sweater in summer, so you should take medicine or other treatments in the warm season.
You should also know that the compression time of any compression underwear will not exceed 5-7 months.
Some women’s perceptions of the quality of various manufacturers’ compensation underwear indicate that expensive styles are not always better than cheap ones. The sheets made in Germany are of high quality and the prices are very reasonable.
What to pay attention to when buying and how to avoid counterfeiting?
There are quality standards for varicose vein medical compression underwear. One of the most important and strict standards is the European standard RAL-GZ-387. Manufacturers who want to use the standard logo must pass strict certification in Germany or Switzerland. If the underwear has such a certificate, it means that it is really of high quality, produces 40-70-100% of the distributed pressure, and has a therapeutic effect. You can understand this standard from the product packaging and label.
It is worth choosing the manufacturer carefully, because there are many fakes in our market, so it is best to buy elastic stockings or elastic tights at a dealership or specialty store, and the experts will accurately select the appropriate model according to the situation. Your measurement.
Since such knitwear should be worn every day, it must be hypoallergenic; in order to determine this, the product purchased must bear the European environmental safety standard Oeko-Tex Standard 10 logo.
Is there anything special about putting on elastic stockings, tights, or golfing?
You should know that even the second type of compression stockings, which are considered the most common, are sometimes "beyond their capabilities" for the patient:
- This usually happens due to the inconvenience and difficulty of wearing underwear on the feet. The characteristic of this kind of knitwear is that it cannot be worn like a child's tights, and it can be folded up with an accordion. Both stockings and tights should be gradually put on and spread out on the legs. If a person has a big belly and tying shoelaces on boots is already a problem, then wearing underwear will also be difficult.
- For ease of wearing, many people use special equipment provided by the same salon. There are also gloves that must be worn. They can be household or medical, because expensive underwear may be damaged by nail art. If you wear gloves on your hands, the underwear will slip better.
- Naturally, the toenails should be trimmed and filed flat. There should be no corns or roughness, otherwise the linen will burst quickly or there will be a lot of powder puffs.
- It is also important that the legs and underwear are dry, and tight socks are worn in the morning, and the legs are not swollen and rested at this time.
- Wearing compression grade 3 products is particularly difficult-this is a lot of work, if the patient trusts his phlebologist and determines that he needs such treatment, then you should be patient, otherwise you should not start treatment from this level. It is usually recommended to use special special devices for level 3 and level 4 compression.
How to maintain compression garments?
- It is best to have 2 compression tights because it should be washed daily-this is necessary to remove the smallest spots, dust, skin particles, because they damage the fibers of the clothes faster than detergents.
- It can only be hand-washed with baby soap, because it cannot be washed in a washing machine. When washing, the water temperature should not be higher than 40℃, nor ironing and bleaching clothes.
- Any rinse aid and conditioner will have a destructive effect on the structure, so they should not be used for washing.
- Dry the laundry in a flat form on a level surface. Do not wring it out, but only gently press it with a towel. Do not dry knitwear upright on the battery, in a traditional hair dryer, in the sun or use a hair dryer to dry knitwear.
- The silicone strips on the socks should also be maintained. They will quickly lose their fixity when exposed to water. Try not to get wet when washing them. Wipe them with alcohol napkins.