With increasing experience in the care of patients with varicose veins, the importance of fundamental physiologic changes in the production of the patient's symptoms and the importance of their correction in the treatment of the patient have been progressively emphasized. And in an experience with now well over 2,000 patients with varicose veins, I have become convinced that only the type of treatment which corrects or compensates for derangements in normal function is of more than temporary success.
The veins of the leg have two functions, viz., to return blood to the heart and to serve as a reservoir for the storage of blood for use in emergencies.1 In the latter function they are responsive to the same influences which affect the other longer and better known organs with similar function. Of the 1,000 cc., more or less, of depot blood in the spleen, the liver, the lung bed,