Varicose Veins Treatments for varicose veins
| How are varicose veins treated? |
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Varicose veins may sometimes worsen without treatment. Your physician may first try methods that don't require surgery to relieve your symptoms. If you have mild to moderate varicose veins, elevating your legs can help reduce leg swelling and relieve other symptoms. Your physician may instruct you to prop your feet up above the level of your heart 3 or 4 times a day for about 15 minutes at a time. When you need to stand for a long period of time, you can flex your legs occasionally to allow the venous pump to keep blood moving toward your heart. Compression Stockings For more severe varicose veins, your physician may prescribe compression stockings. Compression stockings are elastic stockings that squeeze your veins and stop excess blood from flowing backward. In this way, compression stockings also can help heal skin sores and prevent them from returning. You may be required to wear compression stockings daily for the rest of your life. For many patients, compression stockings effectively treat varicose veins and may be all that are needed to relieve pain and swelling and prevent future problems. When these kinds of conservative treatments alone do not relieve your varicose veins or the symptoms due to venous reflux disease, you may require a minimally invasive procedure, depending upon the extent and severity of your symptoms. These treatments include radiofrequency ablation, sclerotherapy, or phlebectomy. Radiofrequency (RF) Ablation RF ablation is also known as the VNUS Closure procedure. The VNUS Closure procedure is considered the best way to treat venous reflux disease that occurs in the great saphenous vein (GSV). During the VNUS Closure procedure, a thin, flexible tube called a catheter is inserted into the GSV. A tiny electrode at the tip of the catheter heats the wall of the GSV and causes the vein to completely close. By closing the vein, there is no more backward blood flow (venous reflux disease), and the associated symptoms, including swelling, pain, and the prominent varicose veins, disappear. The 10 year success rate for the VNUS Closure procedure has been documented in the scientific literature at about 98%. Sclerotherapy During sclerotherapy, your physician injects a dilute medication into your varicose veins. The medication irritates and scars the abnormal varicose veins from the inside out so your abnormal veins can then no longer fill with blood.Blood that would normally return to the heart through these veins returns to the heart through other normal veins. Your body will eventually absorb the veins that received the injection. Occasionally, sclerotherapy may need to be repeated in the same vein to completely close the vein. Phlebectomy Phlebectomy involves making a small incision next to a visible varicose vein, and tugging the vein out with a small grasping tool. Once the vein is removed, you do not have to worry about that vein. You may have a small bruise as well as a scar due to the small incision. |
