What are varicose veins?
Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted blood vessels that show through your skin. They often protrude above the skin and can be shades of green or brown.
You’re most likely to get varicose veins in your legs, but they can appear in other places too. For instance, women can get pelvic varicose veins during pregnancy.
Varicose veins develop when the valves inside the blood vessels weaken and fail to work properly. Blood should flow in one direction around your body, with arteries delivering fresh blood from your heart and veins taking the used blood back to your heart.
The valves in your veins are like one-way gates that allow blood to flow toward your heart and stop it going back the wrong way. If the valves fail, blood can trickle back through, where it starts to pool. The pooling is what causes varicose veins.
Are varicose veins a serious problem?
In general, varicose veins aren’t a serious health risk. They’re unsightly and can cause symptoms like:
- Itching/Burning
- Pain/Cramps
- Heaviness
- Restlessness
Varicose veins are a sign of venous insufficiency, which means your veins aren’t able to return blood to your heart very well. Circulation problems can lead to more serious conditions like deep vein thrombosis and leg ulcers.
Treating varicose veins not only relieves the discomfort they cause, but it also prevents more serious complications, including blood clots or bleeding.
How are varicose veins treated?
Vein Care Medical Center offers endovenous thermal ablation using either laser (EVLA) or radiofrequency (RFA) to treat varicose vein disease involving the saphenous vein systems under ultrasound guidance. Thermal ablation techniques are the gold standards for eliminating diseased saphenous vein systems using non-surgical, cutting edge, heat energy.
These medical devices work with precision so that your surrounding tissues won’t be injured. EVLA and RFA have proven highly successful, safe, and effective. In the hands of a skilled physician like Dr. Landau, lasers or radiofrequency offer significantly fewer risks than more invasive surgical procedures.
Vein Care Medical Center uses the AngioDynamics or CoolTouch CTEV® endovenous laser platforms, which are simple, in-office procedures. Both offer the following benefits:
- Fast relief of symptoms
- Virtually pain-free
- Minimal bruising
- Minimal scarring
- No general anesthesia
- No downtime
- Success rate of mid-high 90th percentile
EVLA and RFA treatments are simple yet effective procedures. Dr. Landau inserts a thin fiber into your damaged vein through a tiny entry point in your skin. With EVLA, the laser light then travels through the fiber; or with RFA, the heat is radiated from the element at the tip of the fiber Dr. Landau pulls the fiber back through your vein and the heat energy reacts with the targeted tissue. After your EVLA or RFA treatment, you can carry on with your day but avoid strenuous activities for the first week. You will need to wear bandages for the first few days underneath followed by graduated compression hose for a few weeks.
This closes and seals the vein. These closed veins are superficial vessels that handle less than 5% of your body’s general blood flow. Your body reroutes the blood through healthier veins with no adverse effects on your circulation.
Other treatments Dr. Landau uses include VenaSeal™, a medical glue that physically shuts down and seals the main defective vein, and ClariVein®, a mechanochemical ablation (MOCA) technology that combines mechanical destruction of the vein with sclerotherapy.
If you have varicose veins, call or send an email to Vein Care Medical Center today to book an appointment.
