[Varices, a true disease?]

There is little agreement on the real prevalence and significance of varices of the lower limbs. The discrepancies between the data produced by the various studies are attributable to several factors, of which the most important has to be the absence of any definition of the forms and types of varices. In the Basle study there has been an attempt to classify into two groups, "disorder" and "disease", according to the severity of the clinical picture. These two groups are clearly distinct regarding complications and the number of risk factors. A study on the long-term development has also shown that at the end of 11 years the group "disease" more frequently presented socio-medical after-effects than the group "disorder". Pronounced varices therefore do constitute a real disease and merit appropriate attention.