6 types of Varicose Vein Treatments

Varicose Vein Treatments

Veins with incompetent valves cause swollen blood vessels called varicose veins that look bluish on the skin surface. They usually occur on the legs, are unsightly and cause some aching with prolonged standing.

If you suffer from varicose veins, you will be happy to know that there are various varicose vein treatments to treat your condition. Some of them are:

1. Sclerotherapy is a common varicose vein treatment where a solution is injected into the vein to swell its vein walls. This leads to the sticking and sealing together of the vein walls to stop blood flow in the vein.

The vein then turns into scar tissue and fades away in a few weeks’ time. Usually, the same vein has to be treated more than once.

2. Laser surgery treats varicose veins by sending strong bursts of light into the vein that make the vein fade and disappear. As accurate lasers are used here, only the vein to be treated is damaged.

Laser treatment lasts 15 to 20 minutes. Only 2 to 5 treatments are sufficient to remove varicose veins from the legs. However, laser surgery is not practical for treating veins larger than 3mm.

3. Endovenous techniques using radiofrequency and laser help treat deep varicose veins without any surgery. As this is a non-invasive varicose vein treatment, it can be done in a doctor’s office.

Here, a small tube called a catheter is inserted into the vein to send out radio frequency or laser energy to shrink and seal the vein wall. It is the healthy veins surrounding the closed vein that restores normal blood flow and bring about an improvement in the varicose vein.

4. In case of large varicose veins, different types of surgery are used for treating the vein. In surgical litigation and stripping, the veins are tied shut and removed from the leg.

This does not hamper the leg blood circulation as the removed veins are usually surface veins. This surgery, however, is done under local or general anesthesia, in an operating room.

5. In ambulatory phlebectomy, tiny cuts are made to the skin using a special light source. Then surgical hooks pull the vein out of the leg in a single treatment. The surgery is carried out in local or regional anesthesia.

6. In case of endoscopic vein surgery, a small video camera is placed in the veins, to see its insides. The veins are then removed using small cuts under some kind of anesthesia.

There are so many varicose vein treatments your Houston plastic surgery doctor or Houston med spa doctor will choose from for treating your case of varicose veins.