Objectives The venous disease represents a major problem of public health, it is responsible for absenteeism and for hospitalisation. It has an indirect impact on productivity. Nevertheless it probably remains underestimated. The purpose of this epidemiological study is to identify the risk factors of the venous disease and in particular to assess the state of the art on the link between professional postures and the occurrence of disease.

Methods This project is a critical reading. It relies on three sources of data: scientific articles, grey literature and one academic book. The strategy of document retrieval and the analysis of the literature rests on an evaluation guide published by the ANAES.

Results The venous disease is a chronic pathology. The venous disease is multifactorial. Age is the most significant risk factor among all examined components: sex, heredity, and pregnancy. Socio-environmental factors favour the onset of the disease. About the working situations, the prolonged exposure to static standing positions and the trampling are perceived as more constraining than sitting position. Lifting heavy load, warm occupational surrounding and tight clothes increase the complaints of the employees in static position. Alternating different working positions and walking are protective factors of the chronic venous disease.

Conclusion The chronology of the studies spans nearly 50 years. The nature of the work environment, in particular of working conditions, is evolving. Nowadays the static position is more often sitting. The international specific venous disease classification recently created, is widely used by professionals.

This study confirms strong prevalence of the venous disease generally and in particular in occupational environment.

The results contain a clear interest allowing to develop axes of prevention of the venous disease at work.