Methods
Injecting the unwanted veins with a sclerosing solution causes the target vein to immediately shrink, and then dissolve over a period of weeks as the body naturally absorbs the treated vein. Sclerotherapy is a non-invasive procedure taking only about 10 minutes to perform. The downtime is minimal, in comparison to an invasive varicose vein surgery.
Sclerotherapy is the "gold standard" and is preferred over laser for eliminating large spider veins (telangiectasiae) and smaller varicose leg veins. Unlike a laser, the sclerosing solution additionally closes the "feeder veins" under the skin that are causing the spider veins to form, thereby making a recurrence of the spider veins in the treated area less likely. Multiple injections of dilute sclerosant are injected into the abnormal surface veins of the involved leg. The patient's leg is then compressed with either stockings or bandages that they wear usually for two weeks after treatment. Patients are also encouraged to walk regularly during that time. It is common practice for the patient to require at least two treatment sessions separated by several weeks to significantly improve the appearance of their leg veins.
Sclerotherapy can also be performed using microfoam sclerosants under ultrasound guidance to treat larger varicose veins, including the great and small saphenous veins. After a map of the patient's varicose veins is created using ultrasound, these veins are injected whilst real-time monitoring of the injections is undertaken, also using ultrasound. The sclerosant can be observed entering the vein, and further injections performed so that all the abnormal veins are treated. Follow-up ultrasound scans are used to confirm closure of the treated veins, and any residual varicose veins can be identified and treated.
Read more about this topic: Sclerotherapy
Famous quotes containing the word methods:
“The philosopher is in advance of his age even in the outward form of his life. He is not fed, sheltered, clothed, warmed, like his contemporaries. How can a man be a philosopher and not maintain his vital heat by better methods than other men?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The comparison between Coleridge and Johnson is obvious in so far as each held sway chiefly by the power of his tongue. The difference between their methods is so marked that it is tempting, but also unnecessary, to judge one to be inferior to the other. Johnson was robust, combative, and concrete; Coleridge was the opposite. The contrast was perhaps in his mind when he said of Johnson: “his bow-wow manner must have had a good deal to do with the effect produced.””
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“If men got pregnant, there would be safe, reliable methods of birth control. They’d be inexpensive, too.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)