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  • Treatment Options for Veins
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Dr. Margaret Mann: Many of us think of veins as just being a cosmetic issue, and for a lot of my patients, it's actually not true. For many of them, it's actually a medical issue. So, they can have achingness, painfulness, tiredness, and swelling that they've been dealing with for years. And, some of my patients may have just spider veins which we can treat with Sclerotherapy, but many people actually have more serious problems where they can have venous reflux or backwards flow in their veins. And, that's actually treated nowadays with something called endovenous ablation. It's an outpatient procedure. We actually, instead of the old days where we put them in the operating room and literally remove and strip these veins out, we actually do it in the office. We use a laser. We numb up the skin locally. Patients are awake for the whole time. We put a laser fiber directly inside the vein, and we pull back and seal the vein down.

Patients virtually walk out the office; and they are better; they look better, and they feel much, much better. They can go back to their daily activity that day or the next day. Once that's treated, we then target those spider veins that they may have. Sclerotherapy, in essence, is using a solution. We inject it directly inside those spider veins and get them to be like glue, and seal up, and go away. It's a very simple treatment. Patients come into the office. It takes about 15 to 30 minutes, and after a few weeks, they look much, much better.

With spider vein treatment, the downtime is really virtually none. Most patients come in, we inject them. It's a 15, 30-minute procedure. And then, we have them wear compression stockings. In general I have people stay in compression stockings between one to three weeks. But they can go back to exercising, really, pretty much everything they do. They can go back to the office, really, even that day. And, most of my patients go back to their regular activities right away. So, it's easy. When it comes to endovenous ablation, so the larger vein treatment, I usually have them stop, you know, aerobic exercise for about a week; but other than that, they just pretty much go back to their every day things.

Treatment Options for Veins

Doctor Margaret Mann covers what treatment options are available for treating varicose or spider veins.