EVALUATING QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS WITH VARICOSE VEIN

Varicose vein (VV) is worldwide problem that can affect both male and female, varicose veins are a common manifestation of venous incompetence in the lower limb. It was classified into trunk, reticular or telangiectasia which is also called spider vein. Most varicose veins are primary while secondary are minority. Untreated VV can increase morbidity and mortality rate, and has bad consequences such as recurrent dermatitis and ulceration, pigmentation and indurations, chronic pain and edema, hemorrhage, deep vein thrombosis, and even malignant transformation, In addition to psychological and financial bad consequences. Epidemiologic studies suggested that up to 15% of men and 25% of women have visible varicose vein. VV are commonly stated to be responsible for a wide range of lower limb nonspecific symptoms such as heaviness, swelling, aching, restless legs, cramps, tingling and itching. VV has a poor impact on quality of life. The Aberdeen Varicose Vein Questionnaire (AVVQ) was developed and validated by other studies for measuring QOL in patients with varicose veins of the leg, in this study the same Aberdeen Questionnaire will be used to evaluate the quality of life of patients with varicose vein at King Abdul-Aziz Medical city in Riyadh. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of life of patients with varicose vein. Ethical approval will be taken first. All patients that have been diagnosed with VV and visit the vascular clinic at King Abdul-Aziz medical city Out Patient clinic will be asked to participate in the study. The questions and responses will be each coded individually, and manually entered into an excel file and exported into the SPSS program for further analysis of the data. A pilot study was first conducted at KAMC to check if the questionnaire can work here in this area and to calculate the sample size, 15 participants were asked to complete the Arabic version of AVVQ after demographic data questions were added, the result showed that mean quality of life score is 52.4 with SD of 14.4 which is approximately similar to international mean score that showed in published data. This high mean score of quality of life can prove that varicose vein has a negative impact on quality of life.