Vein Ablation Treatment for Varicose & Spider Veins

Overview

If you have varicose and/or spider veins, our doctors will provide you with the most effective treatments available, including laser ablation. You will receive a personalized consultation to help you find the causes of your vein problems and choose the treatment that is best for you—all in a convenient and comfortable office.

Is your vein doctor a Vascular Specialist? ASK. It’s your right to know.

Understanding Venous Insufficiency

Venous insufficiency is a very common condition in which the veins have problems sending blood from the legs back to the heart.

In healthy veins, there is continuous flow of blood from the limbs back toward the heart. There are valves within the veins of the legs that prevent the backflow of blood. When the forward flow of blood through the veins is impaired, as in the case of a blood clot, venous insufficiency occurs.

Have you been told you have venous insufficiency? If so, you’re not alone.

Approximately half of the U.S. population has venous disease—50 to 55 percent of women and 40 to 45 percent of men. Of these, 20 to 25 percent of the women and 10 to 15 percent of men will have visible varicose veins.
Varicose veins affect one out of two people age 50 and older, and 15 to 25 percent of all adults.

Symptoms

Symptoms caused by venous insufficiency and varicose veins include leg aching, pain, and heaviness. These symptoms tend to be worse by the end of the day and are relieved by rest and elevating the legs. With advanced venous insufficiency, open wounds may develop. These are called venous stasis ulcers.

People without visible varicose veins can still have symptoms. The symptoms can arise from spider veins as well as from varicose veins, because, in both cases, the symptoms are caused by pressure on nerves by dilated veins.

If you are experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, or have noticed other discomforts you believe are caused from venous insufficiency and/or varicose veins, don’t wait to seek medical attention. We offer several treatment options that will quickly and effectively relieve your symptoms, and have you feeling like yourself again.

Diagnosis

We will assess the valves within your leg veins though an ultrasound examination. We then develop a vein map that distinguishes your good veins from the ones with leaky valves. Once we have pinpointed the impaired veins, we can target those veins for treatment.

Vein Ablation Treatment

Vein ablation is a minimally invasive, outpatient procedure we perform using ultrasound guidance. After numbing your vein with local anesthetic, we will insert a thin fiber within the vein using ultrasound guidance. Laser energy is delivered to the fiber, which generates heat. This heat cauterizes the vein and seals the vein closed.

By sealing the vein with the leaky valves, your varicose veins, which are close to the skin, will shrink and improve in appearance. Once the diseased vein is closed, your other healthy veins take over to carry blood from the leg, re-establishing normal flow.

Benefits of Vein Ablation Treatment

Outpatient treatment takes less than an hour and provides immediate relief of symptoms.
Minimally invasive alternative to surgical “vein stripping.”
Immediate return to normal activity with little or no pain. There may be minor soreness or bruising, which can be treated with over-the-counter pain relievers.
No scars or stitches because the procedure does not require a surgical incision, just a nick in the skin, about the size of a pencil tip.
High success rate and low recurrence rate compared to surgery.
The success rate for vein ablation ranges from 93 to 95 percent.

Insurance

Many insurance carriers cover the vein ablation treatment, based on medical necessity for symptom relief. Contact your provider for more information.

Additional Treatment Options

Injection Sclerotherapy can also be used to treat some varicose and nearly all spider veins. If you choose to have this treatment, we will inject your vein (using an extremely fine needle) with a solution that shrinks the vein.

Ultrasound-guided Sclerotherapy

With ultrasound-guided sclerotherapy, an interventional radiologist will pass a thin tube, called a catheter, into you vein using ultrasound guidance and inject a substance that causes your veins to scar and close. This reroutes the blood to your healthier veins. The affected vein forms a knot of scar tissue that is absorbed by your body over time.

Hand Sclerotherapy

Over the years, we lose fatty tissue and elasticity in our hands, resulting in prominent veins that appear much larger. With a minimally invasive procedure we can create a dramatic effect to the appearance of your hands.

Hand sclerotherapy involves a series of precise injections and entails two to three sessions of sclerotherapy. Each session is virtually painless and takes less than thirty minutes.

Microphlebectomy

Microphlebectomy is a minimally invasive surgical technique used to treat varicose veins that are not caused by saphenous vein reflux. A local anesthetic is injected over your bulging veins and very small skin nicks are made over the veins. Using special instruments, the unsightly veins are gently removed. No stitches are necessary and there is minimal downtime from your normal activities. The results have been very positive for both male and female patients.

Veinwave Treatments

Veinwave is a new procedure for the treatment of spider veins on the legs and fine thread veins, known as telangiectasia. Using microwave energy via a tiny needle, Veinwave is safely able to target locations like the knees and face that are either too bony or too sensitive to be treated with traditional techniques like sclerotherapy. A high frequency wave produces heat while coagulating the fine blood vessels (telangiectasia). It is safe and suitable for men, women, and children, as well as all skin types.

Foam Sclerotherapy

Foam sclerotherapy was invented in the United States in 1944, but fell out of favor until a resurgence in Europe in the 1990s, based on newer medications and formulations. Foam sclerotherapy is now commonly performed in the United States. It is a versatile technique, which can be used not only to treat varicose veins, but also to replace the need for laser ablation to treat saphenous veins or perforators. Foam Sclerotherapy involves a needle and small catheter placement into multiple sites, and it is often staged over two to four sessions, each typically 30–45 minutes.

Unlike laser ablation, foam sclerotherapy is not covered by third-party payors at this time. Advantages of foam sclerotherapy include fewer needle sticks, since there is no need for tumescent anesthesia, minimal bruising and fast recovery. Most describe it as surprisingly comfortable. A liability of foam sclerotherapy is that, while laser ablation is successful in treating over 95 percent of saphenous veins, foam sclerotherapy is successful in just over 90 percent, and it often requires more than one session.

Regardless of the technique used to treat bulging varicose veins, expect to wear compression hose for two weeks after each session. This will be supplemented with ace bandages for two days. This is necessary to avoid trapped blood in treated bulging veins. If you develop trapped blood, it can hurt, and we will treat it by needle aspiration during a follow-up visit.

To schedule a consultation, call MIT at Del Mar Vein Care at 858-792-8346.

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