In the legs there are deep veins which return 90% of the blood back to the heart and superficial veins which return the remaining 10%. It is the superficial veins that can have valves failure that allow blood to pool in the distal legs, this causes an increased pressure in the legs resulting in increased symptoms including pain with standing or sitting for prolonged periods of time, achiness, heaviness, swelling, cramps at night, edema, skin changes, and ulcerations. The technical name for this is Chronic Venous Insufficiency(CVI).

Compression stocking do exactly what the name implies, namely compression. If you can compress the superficial veins and stop the pooling of blood and force the blood to return the the heart through the deep system, then often time the person experiences a reduction of the symptoms associated with CVI. The big problem with compression stockings are that wearing them is for some patients uncomfortable. Either they are too tight and seem to be pinching in areas or they are simply too hot to wear.