Varicose Veins
If you have varicose veins, you may benefit from losing weight or from wearing different shoes or clothes. It may help to raise your legs when you rest. Compression stocking may also help. You may benefit from a medical procedure to treat your veins. Your healthcare provider can create a plan that’s right for you.
What causes varicose veins?
The veins in your legs carry blood up the leg and back toward your heart. The one-way valves in the veins keep the blood flowing in the right direction. But, when the valves become weak or damaged, blood refluxes back down the vein.
The refluxed blood accumulates in the vein, a condition called chronic venous insufficiency. As the blood builds up, it causes twisted, bulging, dark purple and blue varicose veins.
What symptoms develop due to varicose veins?
Some people don’t have any symptoms. However, varicose veins are a common cause of leg pain. In addition to the pain, you may experience:
- Aching legs
- Swollen legs, feet, and ankles
- Burning or itching
- Skin discoloration
- Heaviness or fatigue in your legs
When varicose veins go untreated, they increase the pressure in your lower leg veins. Over time, this high pressure leads to complications such as venous stasis ulcers and deep vein thrombosis.
How are varicose veins treated?
Several minimally invasive treatments for varicose veins use different techniques to achieve the same results: They make the vein walls collapse and turn into scar tissue. Your body gradually reabsorbs the scar tissue, making the veins disappear. Additionally, your body naturally restores normal circulation by rerouting the blood to healthy veins.
At the University Pain and Spine Center, the different treatments used to eliminate varicose veins and treat chronic venous insufficiency include:
Endovenous laser ablation
Your provider administers a local anesthetic and uses ultrasound imaging to thread a laser fiber through your veins until it reaches the varicosity. After the fiber is in place, your provider turns on the laser and slowly withdraws the fiber catheter, allowing heat from the laser to close the vein.
Endovenous radiofrequency ablation
This treatment works the same way as endovenous laser ablation. The only difference is that heat from radiofrequency energy closes the vein.
Sclerotherapy
When your varicose veins are small to medium-sized, your provider may recommend sclerotherapy. During this procedure, they inject a medicine into the varicose vein. The medicine foams and expands to reach all the vein walls, and then it makes the vein collapse.
Microphlebectomy
Your provider performs a microphlebectomy through tiny pinhole incisions. After applying a local anesthetic and making the tiny cut, they use a special hook to reach in and gently remove the varicose vein.
Whether you want to get rid of varicose veins for cosmetic reasons or because they’re painful, call the University University Pain and Spine Center, or book an appointment online.