Venous stasis

Venous stasis, or venostasis, is a condition of slow blood flow in the veins, usually of the legs.

Presentation

Complications

Potential complications of venous stasis are:

• Venous ulcers
• Blood clot formation in veins (venous thrombosis), that can occur in the deep veins of the legs (deep vein thrombosis, DVT) or in the superficial veins
• Id reactions

Causes

Causes of venous stasis include:

• Obesity
• Pregnancy
• Previous damage to leg
• Blood clot
• Smoking
• Swelling and inflammation of a vein close to the skin
• Congestive heart failure.
• Long periods of immobility that can be encountered from driving, flying, bed rest/hospitalization, or having an orthopedic cast. Recommendations by clinicians to reduce venous stasis and DVT/PE often encourage increasing walking, calf exercises, and intermittent pneumatic compression when possible.
• Weakened Venous valves: these are crucial towards ensuring upward flow to the heart from the lower extremities. If weakened, they may fail to close properly which leads to backwards blood flow/blood pooling. This can lead to slower blood flow in the veins.

Ultrasonography-Doppler ultrasound

See also

• Virchow's triad