VARICOSE VEINS – TREATMENT
May 15th, 2009 | Posted by admin | Category: General healthNo Comments
This skin may break down to form an ulcer, and these varicose ulcers are notoriously slow to heal.
Treatment therefore is worthwhile.
In the past, for varicose veins below the knee injections were used, but the results were poor. Operation is considered the treatment of choice.
Here, the large saphenous vein, which runs from ankle to the groin, is “stripped.” An incision is made in the skin at the ankle, a cut made in the vein, and a flexible metal rod is inserted through the vein and pushed up to the top of the vein at the groin.
Where this vein joins the main vein of the leg it is tied off, the metal rod is then attached to the vein, and the surgeon, grasping the rod where it has appeared through a cut in the groin, pulls the vein upwards, turning it inside-out and “stripping” it.
This tears off the small branches of the vein along the way.
While the surgeon is carrying out this procedure, an assistant is applying a firm bandage from the toes upward to put pressure on the leg and reduce bleeding.
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EMPHYSEMA – INTRODUCTION
May 15th, 2009 | Posted by admin | Category: General healthNo Comments
Lung tissue consists of many small, thin-walled air sacs, called alveoli.
Air is carried down the bronchial tubes to these air sacs, and the gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide pass to and fro across these to the blood in the thin-walled capillaries.
In emphysema, there is a reduction in the number of alveoli and an increase in their size.
This reduces the total surface area of the air sacs, and as the gases are exchanged across the surface this leads to a reduction in the amount of available lung tissue.
The main symptom of emphysema is shortness of breath.
As well as this distension of the air sacs, there is usually an associated spasm or constriction of the bronchial tubes, which makes it difficult for the air to move in and out.
There are many causes of emphysema — usually several acting together.
It is a disease which appears to run in families. It may occur in the young, although it is more common in the late middle-aged and the elderly.
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