The White House announced on Thursday that President Donald Trump has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read a memo about the diagnosis from the President’s physician, Sean Barbabella, saying that Trump, 79, underwent a medical evaluation out of an “abundance of caution” after noticing “mild swelling in his lower legs.”
This examination revealed that the President is dealing with chronic venous insufficiency, with Barbabella adding that there “was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease.”
“An echocardiogram was also performed and confirmed normal cardiac structure and function. No signs of heart failure, renal impairment, or systemic illness were identified,” she added.
The Cleveland Clinic states on its website that chronic venous insufficiency occurs when “leg veins become damaged and can’t work as they should.”
“Normally, valves in your leg veins keep blood flowing back up to your heart. But CVI damages those valves, causing blood to pool in your legs. This increases pressure in your leg veins and causes symptoms like swelling and ulcers,” continues the clinic.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) also wrote on its website that this condition is a “prevalent disease process around the world” and that 150,000 people are diagnosed with it every year.
Additionally, nearly $500 million is spent each year to help manage patients’ symptoms of this condition.
Dr. Jeremy Faust, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School, spoke to CNN about the condition and said it is a “pretty normal part of aging, and especially for someone in the overweight to obese category.”
Faust explained that the bigger concern is whether any underlying conditions caused this insufficiency, noting that increased pressure from the heart or sleep apnea can play a role in this diagnosis.
“Even though he’s diagnosed with a benign condition, venous insufficiency, by itself doesn’t necessarily mean it’s benign. The question is, what’s causing the venous insufficiency? And so I would want to know whether or not he has any evidence of, again, increased pressures in the heart or increased pressures in the lungs, which can be contributing to that, and if so, what is the primary cause of that?” Faust said, per CNN.
The NIH states that this condition can lead to “diminished quality of life and loss of work productivity,” though Leavitt said later in the press conference that there is “no discomfort from the President at all.”