Effectiveness of therapeutic exercises for improving the quality of life of patients with chronic venous insufficiency: A systematic review

Abstract

The main signs and symptoms of chronic venous insufficiency are pain, edema, varicose veins, and tissue changes; conditions that compromise functionality and quality of life. Management of the disease aims to mitigate these losses and involves a wide range of interventions, one of which is therapeutic exercise. This article presents the existing evidence on the effectiveness of therapeutic exercises for quality of life, pain, and functionality in chronic venous insufficiency. Searches were run on the databases CENTRAL, CINAHL, LILACS, MEDLINE, PEDro, SciELO, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science. Four of the 2,961 results met the eligibility criteria. Only one of these studies showed benefits of exercise for improving quality of life and reducing pain. The others had low methodological quality. The existing evidence is therefore insufficient to indicate or contraindicate therapeutic exercises for improvement of quality of life, pain, and functionality in patients with chronic venous insufficiency.