Vein disease develops slowly, taking years or decades to become symptomatic. However, people still don’t recognize the early signs or get the right treatment until their disease reaches a critical point.
Dr. Lev Khitin, who has specialized exclusively in veins for over a decade, said patients often come to him with festering ulcers and nearly crippled for lack of proper treatment.
This happens because of misdiagnosis and mistreatment, or self-diagnosis and self-treatment like the following case.
This patient, a 39-year-old otherwise healthy man, father of two, a construction worker, had over several years noticed increasing swelling of his ankles and feet, which he explained as being caused by standing up for long hours.
Vein disorders affect around 25 percent of Americans, and about 60 percent of women over 60 have venous insufficiency, Dr. Khitin said.
