[Varicose veins. Chronic venous insufficiency. Lower limbs venous ulcers. Point of view].
OBJECTIVE
Lower limbs chronic venous disorders are still considered as a minor disease from a university hospital point of view, yet it is a very common problem, affecting the quality of life, generating disability, and expensive for healthcare resources. Its teaching is neither satisfactory nor easy to do.


CONCLUSIONS
Apart from the fact that it rarely causes death, the complexity of venous anatomy and physiopathology, the lack of animal model, common practices lumping together visible varicose veins and chronic venous insufficiency, and moreover a certain carelessness in the vocabulary probably largely explain these difficulties. Our purpose is to discuss chronic venous disorders (varicose veins, chronic venous insufficiency, venous ulcers) on the basis of semantic, of anatomical, haemodynamic and clinical forms and finally of nosology.
Becker
F
F
Service de médecine vasculaire, faculté de médecine, 25000 Besançon, France. francois.becker@wanadoo.fr
D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D007871:Leg Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis; D014648:Varicose Veins / Q000175:diagnosis; D014689:Venous Insufficiency / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology