Chronic venous insufficiency--epidemiology.

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) of lower limbs is one of the most widespread diseases occurring in developed countries worldwide. Literature data concerning its prevalence and incidence differ depending on evaluation criteria or on the definition of CVI. By comparing the available epidemiological literature published in the last decade, the authors point out the fact that the disunity in evaluation criteria of CVI is the weakness of all comparative studies. In spite of this, it is evident that, in addition to age and sex, the main risk factors of CVI include also the influence of working environment, genetic influences and geographic factors. Solely the acceptance of a unified classification of CVI and multinational collaborative studies could bring new information on epidemiology, etiology, prevention and therapy of this chronic disease, as in the case of coronary heart diseases in the past. (Tab. 1, Fig. 2, Ref 19.).