ABSTRACT
Reliable studies place the occurrence of chronic venous disease (CVD) in about 20% of the adult population.[1] It occurs in a wide diversity of forms ranging from a minor, perhaps negligible, finding to a lifestyle-limiting condition that is essentially incurable. The onset of symptoms varies from birth in the congenital syndromes to an insidious onset during early, middle, or later life, or a more or less rapid development after an episode of thrombophlebitis. For a condition that is so ubiquitous, there has been a dearth of critical scientific study, rendering CVD a fertile field for investigation. This investigation has been begun with the advent of the accurate duplex scan, which provides a noninvasive, objective, safe, and affordable method to study the progress of the venous disease over time.
