[The importance of peripheral venous diseases. Incidence and risk factors]

Comprehensive epidemiological studies in the last few years came concordantly to the conclusion, that peripheral venous diseases have a considerable social-medical importance. 70% of the adult population have some kind of alteration in the veins, 15% of which are serious. The main risk factors were the branch and trunk varices. Important risk factors were generally age and familial predisposition; apart from these, there were also relations between the existence of hernias (male), of flatfootedness and splayfootedness (female) and the practice of a "standing" career (male) and overweight (female). The female sex, positive auto-anamnesis relating to venous diseases, surgical interventions, pregnancy and lying-in proved to be important risk factors or indicators for deep phlebothromboses. The administration of a primary or if necessary a secondary prophylactic treatment should be given bearing these factors in mind.