When veins in legs become swollen, twisted and easily detectable, we say that one has varicose veins. These veins affect people due the aging and other unavoidable factors like genetics and pregnancy. Varicose vein treatment near me clinics and doctors exist, explaining why having this condition should not worry you a lot. Also known as varices or varicosities, varicose veins affect almost thirty percent of adult population in the U.S. Varicosities may develop along with smaller abnormal veins called spider veins or just alone. These spider veins take the spider web or tree branch pattern and are more superficial and tinier. They almost look like reticular veins. While they aren’t as serious as varices, and don’t have to be treated, there is spider vein treatment options for all.
How people who have varicosities view it
According to most people, varicose veins don’t represent a terrible illness. While they aren’t pleasant to look at, varices don’t always block circulation in a severe manner or cause long-term health issues. No wonder some people are able to continue living with theirs without seeking varicose vein treatment near me help. Although they do this, it is not recommended. That’s because varices can result to severe side effects like open wounds and blood clots. As there is always an ongoing disease (venous insufficiency or venous reflux disease), varicosities should be treated. Some people do see a vein doctor, yes, but only after experiencing unbearable discomfort and advanced stage complications. We would not advise you to do the same thing; however, by then there will be a lot of pain.
What type of varices do you have?
All varicose veins are not same, as we have hinted above. So, which ones do you have? It could be that you have trunk varicose veins. These are usually located near the surface of the skin and tend to be thick and twisted. Additionally, trunk varicose veins are normally visible because of their long, swollen and knobby look. There is varicose vein treatment near me and you option, too, thanks to advanced medical knowledge and professional doctors. Also called thread veins or telangiectasias, spider veins are the other kind of varicose veins. These ones form in tiny clusters, affecting an extensive area of thigh and/or calf skin.
Sometimes they develop on face and can be red, blue or purple. They are harmless veins and aren’t as embarrassing as the trunk varicosities because they don’t swell under the skin surface. Finally, you might have reticular veins on legs; these usually appear red and in batches, sometimes. So see you vein doctor to find out the type of varicose veins you have right now. Spider veins and reticular veins can sometimes be hard to differentiate because of their tiny sizes.
Signs showing presence of varicosities
If you develop varicose veins in your legs, ankles and/or feet, there will be obvious signs. These include: pain in legs, swollen ankles after work, itching, cramps during sleep and much more. If you don’t see a vein doctor for diagnosis and spider vein treatment, then pain may increase and worsen after being in one posture for several hours. As well, you might develop skin dermatitis, a condition where the skin thickens and hardens. If still nothing is done, venous ulcers may form around your lower legs and ankles. Ulcers are extremely painful.
How do varices form?
These abnormal leg veins develop when there is a problem with your blood circulatory system. As you already know, veins return blood to the heart while arteries transport it to various organs from the heart. Veins must always fight the gravitational force to function properly. This happens easily because they have valves inside, accompanied by leg muscle contractions. The two form a strong pump that consistently moves blood forward and upward. These valves allow blood to enter through them when they open and when they shut, they prevent it from flowing backward. But, valves can weaken and lose their flexibility. If such a thing occurs, blood would begin to leak and flow back to the leg veins. If it pools there, the vein walls will succumb to excessive pressure and swell. Overtime they will begin to twist too, and by then you will not hesitate to see a vein doctor.
What are the risk factors?
If you have no varicose veins, or have them without knowing, you might be wondering whether there are factors that put you at risk of having them. One thing that no one can avoid is aging, and it causes veins to lose their elasticity and strength. Once they do, blood begins to pool in veins. Having a vascular system disease can as well damage your vein valves. There are people with a congenital predisposition toward this vein disorder, like having impaired or missing valves in veins. Females do end up receiving a spider vein treatment because they get pregnant and discover that they have varicose veins for the first time.
Due to pregnancy, the blood volume in your system goes up and at the same time, the flow of blood from the legs to the pelvis area goes down. This circulatory system supports the growing fetus, yes, but it results to varicose veins. You might seek spider vein treatment after your pregnancy if the varices don’t improve. Due to hormonal issues in females, especially when taking contraceptive pills or hormone replacement therapy, varicose veins can occur.
Menopause marks the end of a female’s productive period and it causes varicosities among other health issues due to hormonal imbalance. Having obesity is risky because it exerts excessive pressure on leg veins, overworking them. If your job requires you to stand or sit down for several hours, chances are high that you would develop varices one day.
Treating varicosities in legs
No matter what kind of varicose veins you have, there is a proper treatment option for you. If you have thread veins, then your vein doctor will provide sclerotherapy or laser ablation therapy. In case you have trunk varicose veins, your vein doctor might recommend a minimally invasive cure like endovenous radiofrequency ablation or carry out a simple surgical procedure like phlebectomy. Prior to treating you, your varicose vein treatment near me clinic will create an appointment with you.
During this time, he or she will carry out a diagnosis to verify varicose veins and to discover if there are other vascular disorders like blood clots to worry about. Duplex ultrasound test is often the commonest test done to see the condition of veins. There are other tests too, some minimally invasive and others more invasive. It is only your vein doctor who can decide how best to look for your abnormal veins. Here are the treatment options:
- Sclerotherapy – This form of spider vein treatment entails injections into the affected leg veins. This causes them to collapse and disappear. If you have small to medium-sized varicose veins, the right treatment technique is sclerotherapy. Once a vein doctor places a sclerosant chemical into a vein, a scar tissue will form and seal it off. Foam sclerotherapy may be needed if one has larger varices. It involves the use of a special kind of foam instead of a liquid sclerosing agent. Sclerotherapy is never the best kind of varicose and spider vein treatment, if one has had deep vein thrombosis (DVT) previously. Foam sclerotherapy entails an ultrasound procedure where sound waves are used to scan and create an image of the inside of veins.
In just one session, more than one abnormal leg vein can be treated via sclerotherapy. However, you need to select a dependable vein doctor like Dr. Sareh Rajaee who has excellent education background and enough experience. If more than one session is necessary, your spider vein treatment clinic will arrange future appointments with you. There is usually no pain felt because a local anesthetic is provided, which numbs the area. After this spider vein treatment, varicosities will begin to fade and stronger, healthier veins will then carry the blood back to the heart.
If done well, sclerotherapy is effective: 84 out of 100 cases turn out great. However, there are reports that varicose veins eliminated via this technique can recur. Its side effects include blood clots in untreated veins, lower back pain, headaches, brown patches around treated areas, temporary vision impairment and so on. On the brighter side, sclerotherapy does not affect one’s ability to resume work.
- Radiofrequency ablation – RFA is the heating of a varicose vein wall via radio frequency energy. A vein doctor must access a swollen vein via a tiny cut that is created right above or beneath the knee. A catheter is then placed inside the vein via an ultrasound scan that guides the vein doctor. Additionally, a probe is inserted into the catheter in order to release radio frequency energy. This energy is enough to heat the vein until the walls collapse and close it forever. And after the vein closure, blood will be rerouted to another healthier vein. Done under local anesthetic, RFA may trigger short-term side effects like minor skin burns and paraethesia. If you have saphenous vein insufficiency, especially GSV venous insufficiency, your vein doctor will most likely recommend RFA.
- Endovenous laser ablation therapy – EVLA or EVLT is yet another varicose vein treatment near me option you can try. It entails the use of a catheter to pass a tiny laser through the vein getting treated and to position it at the top of the vein. This laser then releases short beams of light energy that heats up the vein and seals it. As the vein doctor gradually pulls out the laser down the vein, it heats and closes the vein entirely. Just like RFA, the EVLA procedure is done under local anesthetic to eliminate pain. Tightness might occur in legs after this spider vein treatment, and bruising and pain might result too. If the vein doctor is not careful, nerve injury might happen, although pain from it would end soon after.
- Phlebectomy – The method commonly offered is called transilluminated powered phlebectomy. It entails one or two tiny incisions in the leg. The vascular surgeon has to place a special sort of light (transilluminator) under the skin surface to be able to view the veins that should be removed. So the affected veins are extracted via these incisions with suction device. As the entire procedure is carried out under general anesthesia or local anesthesia administration, there is no pain. Bruising or bleeding can be expected after phlebectomy.
If varicose veins are so severe, your vein doctor might consider doing a procedure called ligation or vein stripping surgery. Veins in legs can be extracted or stripped without changing the circulatory role in a terrible way as most of work of returning blood to the heart is done by deep veins–up to ninety percent.
Complications if you avoid varicose vein treatment near me
Since varicose veins stop blood from flowing well, they do cause complications. While it’s not every victim who will develop these complications, there is a chance that they can happen. These include the following:
- Bleeding – If you suffer from an injury, superficial varicose veins can bleed. The bleeding can get so severe that you are not able to stop it.
- Thrombophlebitis – This is swelling or inflammation of the leg veins triggered by blood clots. It can cause pain, redness and warmth. If clots form closer to the surface, they are called superficial thrombophlebitis and can be managed via compression stockings and OTC pain killers.
- Varicose eczema – This condition makes the skin redden, thicken, and harden. It can also lead to blisters and skin crusting.
- Lipodermatosclerosis – This venous disease complication causes the calf area of the leg to redden or become brown, tighten, and harden.
- Venous ulcers – These are painful open wounds that are extremely common. They result from chronic venous insufficiency.
It is important to have a vein doctor called Dr. Sareh Rajaee treat you before you develop any of the above-stated complications. These ones are so difficult to manage even with medicines, explaining the reason why people are advised to seek spider vein treatment early. With compression stockings you can boost blood circulation in your legs, obviously, but these cannot heal the underlying vascular disease.