Varicose veins mostly affect leg veins. They can interrupt your daily activities if they cause excessive pain and discomfort. Varicose veins, also varices or varicosities, can affect any man or woman who is prone to them. Besides genetics, varices can appear for the first time when a woman becomes pregnant, menopausal or overweight. As well, varicosities can occur to women due to constant use of hormonal contraceptives.
Varices can also affect men, although the number of male victims is usually smaller than that of ladies. Those who are overweight have a bigger risk, as well as those who work while standing or sitting for several hours. No matter the cause, there is a suitable varicose veins treatment method for everyone. Treatment of varicosities is generally important:
- To alleviate your symptoms, including pain, itch, odema and cramps and so on.
- To remove complications. When varicose veins are left untreated, they continue to worsen. So by the time a patient seeks help, he or she might have ulcerations, skin discoloration, bleeding, odema and more symptoms.
- To restore a victim’s level of confidence. Varicose veins are too visible to ignore. They tend to be huge, twisted and unattractive. That’s why they should be treated as they can make you feel self-conscious. After eliminating varices or spider veins from your legs, you will likely feel more confident and happier.
If varicose veins treatment is needed, your veins specialist may recommend six months of self-treatment at home. These home remedies can be so useful, including compression stockings that will increase your blood circulation. These come in different colors, lengths and foot styles, and you need a trained doctor to provide the ones that are right for you. If you combine stockings with regular exercise, proper working posture and elevation of legs after work, your varicosities can greatly improve. Even if you get treated via sclerotherapy or another veins treatment method, you can keep on wearing your compression stockings forever. They are, particularly, useful if one has deep venous incompetence problem that entails damaged veins in the deep veins system of your legs. If self-treatment tricks don’t bring about the intended results, your doctor might recommend radio frequency ablation or a related therapy.
When to seek sclerotherapy treatment system
If your varicose veins require further varicose vein treatment, it means that they are too serious and are causing complications that are interrupting your life. Varices that are this serious should be treated to help you resume your usual activities. When a treatment method is being chosen, vascular doctors from Vip Medical Group, for instance, consider the size, position and severity of your varices. If they are small to moderate, and are not very severe, your doctor will most likely recommend sclerotherapy. This is a veins therapy that involves vein injections with special sclerosing agents.
- How it works: The sclerosing agent is injected into the problematic veins where it causes their walls to collapse and close. After this, the collapsed veins will get reabsorbed by the body. This varicose vein treatment trick works when varicose veins are not big enough to require surgery, explaining why it is used to treat spider veins. Today, however, the traditional system is barely used because there is an advanced method—ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy. This system can be applied when a previously treated area develops new varicose veins. This varicose vein treatment technique entails injecting special foam into a damaged vein and the sclerosing agent scars the vein to an extent that it closes. This kind of varicose vein treatment may not be suitable when you have formerly had DVT (deep vein thrombosis) attack. An injection is guided to a vein via an ultrasound scan, and it is possible to cure more than one varicose vein in a single session. Foam sclerotherapy is generally done under local anesthetic, which involves certain drug that makes the area being treated numb and pain-free. After undergoing an ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy session, your veins will begin to die away and stronger veins will start to do the work that was previously done by the destroyed veins. The destroyed veins will no longer be filled with blood as they will disappear totally.
- Effectiveness level: Further vein treatment via sclerotherapy might be needed to completely eliminate varicosities. It’s not likely that properly treated areas will be affected by new varices when ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy is applied. However, reappearance is still possible especially if you go to a vein treatment clinic that offers the traditional form of sclerotherapy that is not as affective as the ultrasound-guided method. While this treatment method has proven to be really effective so far, it still has a failure rate of about sixteen percent. That’s because some researchers found that in one hundred cases that were tackled via sclerotherapy, eighty-four cases were effective. In one study, varices reappeared in greater than half of those treated.
- Side effects: It tends to have side effects too, but they are not extremely critical or deadly:
- Headaches
- Lumbar spine pain
- Skin discoloration such as brown patches over the treated parts
- Blood clotting in other veins in your legs
- Temporary vision difficulties
- Dizziness
Despite having sclerotherapy side effects, most patients are able to walk normally and resume their daily activities. To improve your daily lifestyle, it is necessary that you wear compression stockings for a whole week after receiving your varicose veins treatment service. In extremely rare cases, sclerotherapy might cause horrible complications like transient ischaemic attacks or strokes. These are extremely rare cases though. So, if your varicose veins are hurting and causing discomfort, we would advise you to have them treated by the right doctor. If they select sclerotherapy, just go through with it without the fear of feeling pain. But, if they select a different varicose vein treatment technique, don’t hesitate to endure it as all you need are pain-free and nice-looking legs.
The Radiofrequency Ablation therapy
Radiofrequency Ablation Therapy, also called RFA, is one of the top treatments for varicose veins. It is a minimally invasive technique that is endovenous in nature. Unlike vein stripping surgery that is likely to cause painful complications, RFA is slightly invasive. No wonder it is called Keyhole surgery as only tiny cuts are made to make this varicose vein treatment possible. RFA makes use of heat to destroy the problematic vein and close it from the inner side, explaining why it is referred to as endovenous thermablation. It is all about ablating a sick vein with heat that is released by a device that is inserted and passed up the length of the vein.
VNUS(R) Closure(R) was the original device for conducting radio frequency ablation therapy and it is still in use today. Once the vein collapses, it is replaced by a thin coat of fibrous scar that will remain for a long period. Once scarring occurs, it will reduce the chances of varices re-occurring in the same spot. When it comes to the preparation process for this procedure, you need to know that there are no special things you should be doing. All the same, you should stop taking any blood thinning drugs and aspirin for a whole week before your RFA treatment is offered.
- How RFA is done – During the procedure, your vascular specialist will ask you to lie down on your bed on a bed after wearing a hospital gown that will leave your leg exposed up to the groin area. Next, he or she will clean your leg with a given antibiotic solution and then cover it with sterilized towels. Then, your doctor will administer a local anesthetic drug in the thigh (right above your knee) area. Through ultrasound, the specialist will identify your vein, insert a catheter and guide it up to your groin area. This ultrasound-guided endovenous therapy works when the catheter reaches the point that requires treatment. Next, heat energy will be released via the catheter and as soon as this happens, the doctor will remove the catheter. As he or she withdraws this device, it will heat up the entire vein. This will make the problematic vein’s walls to collapse. Then, a small dressing will be applied to the area where a tiny incision was made to keep it from an infection. As well, a compression bandage will be wrapped around your thigh to boost blood circulation.
- What to expect – RFA takes about thirty minutes to forty-five minutes of your time. It is a doctor’s office sort of varicose vein treatment technique that is known to cause mild pain during the treatment. But, this pain can be greatly reduced via a local anesthetic drug. As for when you can resume your normal activities, most doctors will want you to do it as soon as possible. Hence, you can do it the same day or the following day. All the same, don’t do heavy lifting or exercises that may cause your legs to strain a lot. In about a week, you can do the sporting activities you love. As for the earliest results, you can expect to see them in about two weeks or earlier. First, the vein will dry up and begin to become less visible. After this, the final radio frequency ablation therapy results will be noted after some months pass. Mild bruising may be expected as well as swelling that will go away in about ten to fourteen days.
- RFA advantages –This varicose vein treatment trick has a few benefits. First, it is rather quick and safe compared to other methods of treating varicose veins. Being a minimally invasive procedure, RFA is easier to heal than vein stripping surgery. Minimal pain after treatment can be felt due to slight bruising at the point of incisions, but this disappears fast. You can resume work almost immediately, depending on how extensive the area affected by varicose veins is. Additionally, the use of general anesthesia is unnecessary unless a large area is being treated or if the patient cannot handle even a little pain.
- RFA side effects – Like any other varicose vein treatment method, radio frequency ablation can trigger side effects or complications. These include the following: blood clots, vein perforation, pulmonary embolism (when clots form in lungs), phlebitis (vein inflammation), hematoma (blood collection), numbness/tingling (paresthesia), skin burns, skin bruising, nerve damage, ache, and/or infection. Sometimes the procedure may fail to work.
It is good to know that RFA is used to treat patients with big varices. Thus, it is not chosen for those with spider veins (also thread veins) and does not entail the removal of normal blood veins. Thus, we would advise you to seek varicose vein treatment help first as the doctor will decide whether you make a perfect candidate for radio frequency ablation therapy.
Deciding who will offer you radio frequency ablation therapy
If you have larger varicosities, chances are that RFA will be selected for you. However, this sensitive procedure should only be conducted by a well-trained, experienced vascular doctor who is recognized countrywide for their great work. If you don’t know of any doctor who has such qualifications, we would like to suggest a vein specialist called Dr. Juan Montoya —a Harvard medical School trainee. She has excellent qualifications in the field of pain management and vascular therapies, and is recognized by the American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine. She has treated numerous people successfully and can do the same for you or your loved one.
Final word
So far you know that varicose veins can be eliminated through ultrasound-guided sclerosing therapy or ultrasound-guided endovenous procedure called radio frequency ablation. Chances that any of these two procedures will work are high if a doctor selects them for you. So, go on and call veins treatment center now to begin your treatment early. If you wait, chances are that your varicosities will worsen and cause serious complications. These include painful open wounds or ulcers that will be so hard to heal, bleeding from veins, discoloration of skin, phlebitis, odema, deep vein thrombosis and so on. Thus, we highly recommend that you seek help as early as now to avoid endless pain and discomfort later on.