A malfunctioning vein isn’t something to ignore.
For starters, when blood pools in the vein instead of flowing like it should, it heightens your risk for a blood clot. If that dislodges and travels somewhere else, like your lungs, it can be life-threatening.
Beyond that, visible veins might bother you cosmetically or cause symptoms like aching or cramping.
Fortunately, if you have a vein that isn’t working as it should, our providers have a variety of treatment options to correct it. At Vascular & Interventional Associates, we specialize in treating both varicose veins and spider veins. Better still, the choices on the table are minimally invasive and come with no downtime.
If you’re in the northern Kentucky or Cincinnati, Ohio, area, you have access to our outstanding team and these effective treatment options.
We apply this treatment to help people with both spider veins and varicose veins.
During sclerotherapy, we inject a specialized foam solution into the problem vein. We do this guided by ultrasound technology to place the medication, called Varithena™, as precisely as possible.
The foam works inside the blood vessel, causing the sides to stick together. This seals the vein shut. Your body redirects blood flow to other healthy blood vessels and goes to work absorbing what is now scar tissue, eventually fading it from view.
Ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy doesn’t require any anesthesia. You might need repeat treatments to get the cosmetic results you’re seeking.
We usually recommend sclerotherapy for spider veins. For varicose veins, we may suggest this treatment option if the vein is small or it has a lot of twists that would make ablation difficult.
With this varicose vein treatment, we use a tiny specialized tube to direct radiofrequency (RF) energy into the problem vein. This heats the vein, damaging it enough that it seals shut. Your body then redirects blood flow and starts absorbing the now-defunct vein.
While sclerotherapy is often used as a first-line treatment for varicose veins, it’s not always successful, especially on larger veins. Radiofrequency ablation, on the other hand, has a 97% success rate.
This ablation treatment similarly uses heat to seal the varicose vein shut. In this case, however, a laser generates that heat rather than RF thermal energy.
If we recommend ablation for your vein, we analyze the anatomy of that vein in question to decide which is likely to work best: endovenous laser ablation or radiofrequency ablation.
If your problem vein is too big for sclerotherapy but too small to use ablation, you still have one more minimally invasive option. During outpatient microphlebectomy, we make a tiny incision and physically remove the vein.
With all of these treatment options available at Vascular & Interventional Associates, you might have special aftercare instructions, like wearing a compression garment or avoiding strenuous activity for a few days. Still, you can go about your usual daily activities, meaning you don’t have to schedule around any time away from work or school.
To explore which minimally invasive, no-downtime vein treatment might be right for you, schedule an appointment at our office in Crestview Hills, Kentucky. Call us or book online today.
