Treatment for Varicose Veins
Get the legs you've always wanted!
SUMMARY
When you decide to show off your legs, the last thing you want to showcase is a spidery, blue-green veins on your calves. While varicose veins can be hereditary, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with them forever! At Physimed Medispa, Dr. Pierre Karam, vascular surgeon, will ensure that your veins are removed safely, no matter the severity. Take advantage of the various treatments for varicose veins found at Medispa Physimed which will ease your pain and restore your body confidence so you can show off your legs this summer.
When you decide to show off your legs, the last thing you want to showcase is a spidery, blue-green veins on your calves. While varicose veins can be hereditary, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with them forever!
Varicose veins are veins close to the skin veins that appear swollen, twisted or stretched. Any vein in your body can become varicose but the veins in the legs, thighs and pelvic area particularly, are most commonly affected. Varicose veins are a common condition that is predominant among women and often get worse with age. So what causes varicose veins?
In most individuals, blood in the body travels through blood vessels; arteries carry blood from the heart to the rest of the body and veins return blood to the heart. While walking, their leg muscles contract, and squeeze the deep veins pushing the blood upward to their heart and the valves, which are located inside the veins, to prevent the blood from flowing down in the wrong direction.
For individuals with varicose veins, the walls of the veins stretch and become less flexible which in turn weakens the valves and stops them from working properly, blood then leaks down and builds up in different branches of the main vein causing them to swell and become unattractive in appearance.
The reason why your veins and valves stretch and stop working is not fully understood but common risk factors are family history, obesity, having an occupation that entails prolonged sitting or standing and pregnancy.
Varicose veins are not harmless. They may cause:
o Aesthetic disturbances with no symptoms.
o Heaviness, leg aching and leg tiredness
o Localized pain in the areas where the veins are apparent
o Muscle cramps in the calf
o In rare cases, complications such as: Bleeding to the skin, eczema and ulcers around the ankle and exceptionally phlebitis.
Varicose veins that appear in your legs can be easily compared to the branches and the leaves of a tree while the trunk of the tree is compared to the main leaking vein called saphenous vein.
Getting rid of the visible varicose veins (i.e.: the branches and leaves) cannot be done without the destruction of the trunk of the tree (saphenous vein) if it is leaking.
Before any treatment:
In order to treat those tricky varicose veins and to get lasting results, it is important to get an accurate diagnosis, through the help of the duplex ultrasound. Duplex ultrasound is a non-invasive evaluation of blood flow through your veins. This test examines all the veins in your leg and determines which one is leaking, its size at different locations in order to outline a custom treatment plan.Treatment:
Dr Pierre Karam, Vascular Surgeon at Physimed Medispa might recommend one of these treatment options all performed in the clinic:1. If the saphenous vein has a normal function which means that there was no apparent leak during the Duplex Scan, then your best treatment would be injection sclerotherapy in order to destroy the unwanted veins. Upon destroying the diseased vein, the blood then re-routes into the healthy veins.
2. If the saphenous vein appears to be leaking blood in a downward direction, your doctor may recommend one of the three latest treatments options for the saphenous veins: UGFS, MOCA, EVLT:
Your doctor will wait three months, following any of the above procedures, to allow the varicose veins to slowly disappear. If the varicose veins do not disappear after three months, then other sessions of injection sclerotherapy may be required to improve the appearance of your legs.
Follow-up visit: It is very important to follow-up your treatment because varicose veins will progress over time at a 5% deterioration rate every year. This is why you need a follow up session with your doctor every year or two in order to keep your healthy looking legs.
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