Venous Ulcers

The appearance of breaks in the skin on the inner side of the ankle can be serious. The protruding bone on the inside of your ankle is called the medial malleolus and most often the break in the skin is just above there. It most often is visible as a round shape near the medial malleolus and is a very strong sign that it’s really time to seek out a vascular specialist for your varicose veins problem..

A break in the skin is actually called an ulcer or ulceration, which really just means a deficit of tissue. Just like the once common malady of stomach ulcers, there is an area where tissue should be present but it is not.

A venous ulceration can be thought of as if somebody took a spoon and scooped a section of skin off your leg. It has the same rounded or elongate appearance as scooping some ice cream out of a container.

The presence of leg ulcers can be a sign of trauma, infection, arterial disease or venous insuffiency whereby the blood is not returning up towards the heart as well as it should be.

Hopefully you or your loved ones never experience a venous ulceration but if seen they are best treated early and aggressively before they enlarge and progress.