Varicose veins are a very common problem in our society, which explains why new minimally invasive surgical techniques have emerged to eliminate them. Dr. Comerma, expert in General Surgery, exposes different methods to eliminate varicose shafts.
What are varicose veins?
Varicose veins are one of the most common pathologies that exist. There is affectation of more than one in ten people and are produced by dilatations of the veins of the legs. They are caused by a malfunction of the valves of these veins, which hinder the return of blood to the heart.
What are the symptoms?
Varicose veins cause heaviness, cramps, leg fatigue, edema especially in the ankles and is more pronounced in summer, in hot weather, than in winter. It is important to treat varicose veins to avoid complications, which can sometimes be serious. And the most frequent are the appearance of skin ulcers, the appearance of thrombophlebitis with the danger of pulmonary embolism, legs that are very edematous, very swollen and painful. Basically, these are the most important complications.
How are varicose veins eliminated?
The treatment of varicose veins has always been basically surgical. Classically what was done was the removal of the varicose shafts and bundles. Increasingly, the tendency of surgeons is to perform minimally invasive surgeries such as the Chiva technique, endolaser and radiofrequency, which are techniques that are performed under local anesthesia on an outpatient basis and allow the patient to return to work in 24-48 hours. And, as an alternative to surgery, we have a revolutionary technique which is ultrasound-guided microfoam sclerosis.
What does sclerosis with ultrasound-guided microfoam consist of?
Microfoam sclerosis consists of the injection of a microfoam into the vein, which produces an inflammation of the venous wall with subsequent occlusion and disappearance of the vein. This is done without anesthesia, it is a painless technique, it is done in the office and the only thing that is required afterwards is to wear an elastic stocking for a few days. The great advantage is that the patient can resume normal activity within a few minutes. It is a technique with very few complications and is used for small veins such as spider veins, as well as for more important varicose veins and truncal varicose veins. It is very important to make a vascular study of each patient through a good clinical history and a Doppler ultrasound study and apply the most appropriate treatment for each patient.