President Donald Trump was recently diagnosed with a common vein condition called chronic venous insufficiency. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump had noticed swelling in one of his legs, prompting him to undergo testing.
CVI is a condition usually caused by damaged leg veins that struggle to send blood back up to the heart. Leavitt said Trump tested for other, more serious complications that sometimes go hand in hand with chronic venous insufficiency, but none were found.
“No signs of heart failure, renal impairment or systemic illness were identified,” she said.
Here’s what to know about the condition.
How serious is it?
CVI happens when leg veins are damaged and some blood cannot flow from the legs to the heart and pools up in the leg veins, causing swelling and other complications.
The condition is generally mild but can worsen over time. If left untreated, it can cause a host of symptoms, including swelling, cramps, skin changes, leg ulcers, and varicose veins, which are veins that become swollen and twisted.
“What’s interesting about this is that it runs the spectrum from very, very mild — where you might have a little bit of swelling, maybe a few varicose veins — to very severe, where you have very severe swelling, skin changes, hyperpigmentation, sort of fibrosis or leather appearance of the skin and even wounds,” said Dr. Thomas Maldonado, a vascular surgeon and medical director of the Venous Thromboembolic Center at NYU Langone Health. “It’s chronic, and over the course of a lifetime, especially as we age, this can be more severe.”
Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, called CVI “a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over 70” in a letter released to the public.
The condition can, however, be tied to more serious conditions, including deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot that forms in a deep vein, or pulmonary embolism, a blood clot that stops blood flow to an artery in the lung.
Barbabella said Trump showed no signs of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease.
How common is it?
CVI affects about 1 in 20 adults, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It’s especially common in older adults, and the risk increases with age.
Trump turned 79 last month.
How is it treated?
CVI has a handful of treatments, ranging from lifestyle changes to surgery. Barbabella, in his letter, did not specify what treatments — if any — Trump would be undergoing.
Lifestyle changes, like regular exercise, leg elevation and weight management are usually the first steps to treating CVI, according to Maldonado. Compression therapy, which involves tight stockings or bandages, is also an option.
Blood thinners are sometimes used to prevent blood clots from forming.
Some treatments involve injecting a chemical into the veins, which causes scarring, so the veins no longer carry blood.
For worse cases, surgery is sometimes necessary. That can involve tying off the problem vein so that it no longer transports blood, or, if necessary, removing the vein.
Those options are usually only available if the vein is “superficial,” or close to the skin. In cases where deeper veins are the ones damaged, surgery is usually not an option.
“Sometimes the ultrasound will show it’s mostly in the deep system. And unfortunately, those are sacred. We can’t really do surgery or shut those veins down. They’re critical for the circulation,” said Maldonado.
Maya Kaufman contributed to this report.
