What are the best leg vein treatment options? A top vascular surgeon offers expert advice
Finding the right treatment for leg vein diseases can be a challenge. Run a search through the internet and you will find several options to treat varicose and spider veins – home remedies, medicines, exercises, and surgical procedures. So how do you know which ones are going to be effective in the long run?
Your best bet: Leg vein treatment options available at a medical clinic
Varicose and spider veins occur when the superficial veins of your leg (the saphenous veins) become dysfunctional. So the most sensible treatment is to stop them from functioning altogether, and re-route the blood in them to healthier veins. A top medical clinic would offer the following procedures to achieve this goal:
- VenaSeal: This is the most minimally invasive treatment for varicose veins. Medical grade glue is injected into the defective vein. This acts almost immediately and fuses the vein walls together. The treated vein eventually gets digested by the body and disappears.
- Radiofrequency ablation (RFA): The vein doctor numbs the skin over the defective vein, and, through a small cut, inserts a radiofrequency catheter into it. The catheter delivers heat energy throughout the length of your vein, which melts the vein walls and fuses them.
- Varithena: This involves the injection of medicated foam into your veins. This irritates the vein walls, causing them to scar and seal off.
- Endovenous Laser ablation: This is similar to RFA, except that laser energy is used instead of heat. Studies show that laser treatment may be more painful than RFA, but has a comparable success rate.
- Clarivein: This involves the insertion of a miniscule catheter into the defective vein, under imaging guidance. The catheter rotates within the defective vein, and disperses medicated solution throughout the vein. The solution irritates and scars the vein.
- Sclerotherapy: This is similar to Varithena, but is less potent, and is used for smaller veins such as spider veins, or as a ‘finishing up’ for smaller veins after the larger varicose veins have already been treated.
All the above procedures are extremely effective in treating your leg vein disease. The actual procedures take less than an hour, and require no recovery time – you can even get back to work on the same day.
Some vein clinics also offer surgery for treating diseased leg veins. This involves stripping off the entire blood vessel from the underlying tissue and removing it. While this procedure is certainly effective, it is extremely invasive – and you will need a few days to recover from it. Ambulatory phlebectomy is another invasive procedure, that involves removing the superficial veins through small incisions in the skin. Most vein doctors today prefer minimally invasive procedures, as they can be equally effective, and are much more comfortable and convenient.
Are there conservative leg vein treatment options available – or do you always need to see a vein doctor?
If you have painful symptoms, and are unable to see a doctor right away, there are a few measures can help ease the pressure off your legs, and relieve symptoms.
- Elevate your legs: This will drain excess blood from your leg veins back to your heart
- Exercise: This increases the circulation of blood in the veins, and relieves pressure
- Wear flats and loose clothing: Heeled shoes and tight clothing can concentrate blood in one area of the body, which worsens symptoms.
- Massage: Massaging your legs is one way to get blood moving, while also relieving pain.
- Compression stockings: These compress bulging veins, and improve blood circulation in them, directing blood back to the heart. While you can probably get these online, medical grade compression stockings – that you get with a vein doctor’s prescription, tend to exert more pressure and are therefore more effective.
While the above measures may relieve your pain temporarily, be aware that these measures cannot actually cure varicose and spider veins.
Never be taken in by leg vein treatment options that involve home remedies. Several online resources advise the use of apple cider vinegar, witch hazel, horse chestnut seed, and various essential oils. None of these have any scientifically proven effect on varicose and spider veins, and can, in fact, do more harm by causing allergic reactions. It is best to avoid all these remedies altogether, and trust a vein doctor to treat your leg veins in the right manner.
The only scientifically proven way that effectively treats leg vein disease is to stop defective veins from functioning.
So the bottom line is – if you have some kind of vein disease – visible varicose veins, spider veins, or just non-specific symptoms, you need to see a vein doctor. A board certified vein specialist will be able to diagnose the kind of vein disease that you have, and will formulate a treatment plan that is best suited for you.
The Vein Treatment Clinic, a top medical clinic for spider and varicose vein treatments, offers state of the art, minimally invasive treatment for varicose veins. We have on board the nation’s most acclaimed, Ivy league trained vein specialists, who are highly skilled at performing minimally invasive procedures for varicose and spider veins. Our vein doctors believe in a personalized, hands-on approach and will discuss all possible leg vein treatment options with you at length so that you can make an informed decision. The Vein Treatment Clinic has offices in New York, New Jersey and several other locations across the United States. Book an appointment with us today!
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