Venous disease is prevalent, undertreated, and frequently unrecognized. Over the past two decades, new treatment modalities have changed the way venous disease is approached. Some of these treatment modalities are only available in certain centers or locations and access to care may be inequitable. While venous disease affects millions in the US, we have little understanding of gender, socioeconomic, and ethnic disparities in both superficial and deep venous disease presentation. In an effort to better understand treatment of male and female patients from different gender, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, literature searches were conducted to investigate how these patients were evaluated and treated. PubMed was used to search literature using the terms venous insufficiency, superficial venous disease, venous thromboembolism, DVT, May-Thurner, and pulmonary embolism with gender, sex, racial, and socioeconomic disparities and differences within the keywords. In addition, once articles were discovered, the “similar articles” function was also used to expand the search. Included studies were restricted from 1995-current. Given the paucity of data, no studies were excluded. It is readily apparent that there is not enough data to make decisions that would modify treatment to impact outcome in patients of differing backgrounds and gender. Studies currently are limited to evaluating patients by sex assigned at birth without interrogation of identified gender. It is imperative that consideration is made to evaluate gender and ethnic differences as treatment options may need to be tailored accordingly. Outreach and education for the underserved patient populations with improvement in access to care must also be incorporated into the healthcare system. Additional work in this area must be supported. Further data collection and research related to demographic disparities among patients suffering from venous disease is necessary to better understand differences that would change treatment algorithms tailored to specific groups.
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