Treating Varicose Veins: What You Need To Know

Varicose veins are embarrassing and painful, bulging veins with a twisted, ropey appearance, usually occurring in the legs. Caused by vein disease, the purple or bluish-colored rope-like appearance is the result of pooling blood within the vein. The pooling of blood occurs when the one-direction valves within the vein become weakened or damaged. As a result, the veins have trouble pumping the blood properly back to the heart. Varicose veins and vein disease can exhibit painful, debilitating symptoms in the legs like:

• Heaviness or fatigue
• Aching or swelling
• Itching or burning
• Numbness
• Restlessness

Treating varicose veins

Luckily, minimally invasive treatment options are available to rid yourself of painful varicose veins caused by vein disease. Procedures like endovenous laser ablation (EVLA), sclerotherapy or ambulatory phlebectomy could be the right option for you.

Endovenous laser ablation is one of the most effective ways to treat vein disease, which causes varicose veins. This minimally invasive procedure involves a tiny incision to allow a laser catheter to enter inside the vein. The laser heats the vein wall, which denatures the proteins in the vein-wall tissue, which causes the vein to begin to seal off.

This forces the blood to reroute to other, healthier veins. The body eventually absorbs the vein naturally.

Sclerotherapy is a minimally invasive treatment that uses ultrasound guidance to inject a small amount of a special sclerosing agent directly into the diseased veins. This agent causes the diseased veins to collapse. The body eventually absorbs the collapsed vein naturally.

Ambulatory phlebectomy is a minimally invasive method used to treat vein disorders in veins that are too small to be treated with EVLA, but too large to be treated with sclerotherapy. Ambulatory phlebectomy uses tiny incisions to remove the diseased vein segments with a vein retractor.

Benefits of EVLA, sclerotherapy and ambulatory phlebectomy

There are many benefits to treating your varicose veins with EVLA and ambulatory phlebectomy. These include:

• Little to no downtime
• Can be done on all skin types
• Performed in the doctor’s office
• Minimal postoperative pain and discomfort
• Little to no scarring

Learn more about the services we offer by calling our North Center location at 773-231-9884 or our Downtown Chicago location at 312-234-0750