What are the 5 Best Leg Vein Treatment Options?

So you have veins on your legs? It’s possible that you’re dealing with varicose veins, which will appear in the form of bulging rope-like knotted blood vessels. Or you may be dealing with spider veins, which will appear in the form of dense clusters of blood vessels just under the surface of your skin.

Both of them look pretty hideous and most people who suffer from leg veins eventually take a massive blow to their self-confidence. Perhaps you’re already feeling conscious about your legs and withdrawing socially. Well, you can take comfort in the fact that leg veins are actually extremely common and over 50% of all women suffer from them at some point. Even better, there are a lot of great varicose vein treatments you can opt for that cause minimal pain and discomfort and have a negligible risk of side effects.

It’s important to go to a reputable varicose vein treatment clinic because they need to accurately diagnose the source of your leg veins. In some cases, they may be simple surface veins. But in most cases, spider veins and varicose veins are caused by chronic venous insufficiency, a dangerous condition in which your saphenous vein malfunctions and blood accumulates in your leg veins.

In the past, leg veins could only be treated with complicated (and often risky) surgical procedures. But now, thanks to modern science, there are a number of amazing minimally invasive and non-surgical varicose vein treatments you can opt for. In this article, we discuss what are the 5 best leg vein treatment options.

Sclerotherapy

Sclerotherapy is the least invasive and simplest leg vein treatment procedure available. During this procedure, the vein doctor will inject a medicine known as sclerosant into the surface veins on your legs. This medicine will create an inflammatory reaction and make the walls of the leg veins stick to each other. This essentially shuts the veins down and they become scar tissue, before gradually disappearing. The accumulated blood reroutes to healthier veins and regular blood circulation is restored.

The entire procedure only takes around 30 minutes, can be conducted in-office, requires no anesthesia, and barely causes any discomfort. The only issue with this vein treatment option is that it’s only suitable for superficial spider veins. It can treat the surface symptoms but not the underlying chronic venous insufficiency.

As such, a vein doctor should only recommend sclerotherapy in one of two situations. If they’ve run a test and it’s clear that you’re not suffering from vein disease. Or if they’ve already treated the diseased saphenous vein and the sclerotherapy procedure is conducted just to remove the surface symptoms of spider veins. Since this procedure is entirely cosmetic in nature, it’s not usually covered by insurance.

Radiofrequency Ablation

Radiofrequency ablation is a heat treatment procedure for vein disease. During this procedure, the vein doctor will first create a small incision on your thighs, which will serve as the entry point for the catheter. The doctor will drive the catheter under ultrasound guidance until it lodges itself within the diseased saphenous vein. Once the catheter is in, the vein doctor will activate the catheter so that it generates thermal energy. This immense heat energy will irritate the vein walls and eventually collapse the saphenous vein altogether, sending all of the accumulated blood to healthier veins and restoring blood circulation to the heart.

Endovenous Laser Ablation

Endovenous laser ablation is a laser treatment for varicose veins. During this procedure, the vein doctor creates an incision on your thighs so that they can insert a catheter with a laser fiber into your diseased saphenous vein. This will be done under ultrasound guidance. Once the catheter is properly positioned, the vein doctor will inject anesthesia all along the diseased saphenous vein to protect the surrounding tissues from the laser energy. Following that, the doctor will activate the laser fiber in order to irritate and eventually collapse the affected vein. The accumulated blood will automatically reroute to healthier veins and regular blood circulation will be restored.

VenaSeal

VenaSeal is one of the latest varicose vein treatments out there. This procedure is fairly simple and can also be conducted without any anesthetic influence. The vein doctor simply injects a vein glue into the affected saphenous vein. This fuses the walls of the saphenous vein together, thereby turning the vein into a large scar tissue. The accumulated blood reroutes to healthier veins. This procedure has an incredibly high success rate of 99%, but since it’s fairly new, it’s not yet covered by insurance.

Ambulatory Phlebectomy

Ambulatory Phlebectomy is a procedure in which the vein doctor makes several small incisions on your skin to physically remove all of the surface varicose veins. This permanently removes varicose veins and spider veins on the surface of your skin. However, as with sclerotherapy, this procedure can only remove the superficial veins, i.e., it can remove the symptoms and not the underlying disease. As such, ambulatory phlebectomy is usually done if you’re not suffering from chronic venous insufficiency at all, or if your vein disease has already been treated.

Schedule your Varicose Vein Treatments

At VIP Medical Group, we have some of the world’s leading vein doctors who can accurately identify the root cause of your leg veins and treat it using the best leg vein treatment options. For more information, please schedule your varicose vein treatments today.