Are varicose veins  causing you to cover up?

• Reprints

By Dr. Kevin Keele A board-certified interventional radiologist at Ingalls Health System

Updated: October 26, 2011 1:38AM

Whether you’re a man or a woman, summer is a season for baring your legs.

But for people with varicose veins, wearing shorts can be embarrassing.

More importantly, the unsightly bulges caused by varicose veins can cause pain and numbness and lead to more complications if not treated.

The good news is that there are newer procedures that treat varicose veins quicker and with less pain than traditional surgery.

Varicose veins are gnarled, enlarged veins. While any vein may become varicose, the veins most commonly affected are those in your legs and feet. That’s because standing and walking upright increases the pressure in the veins of your lower body. The condition results when the veins weaken. The small valves in the vein lose the ability to push blood back up to the heart. As a result, the blood pools and the vein puffs up and becomes more visible under the skin.

For many people, varicose veins and spider veins — a common, mild variation of varicose veins — are simply a cosmetic concern.

In others, varicose veins can lead to more serious conditions and complications, including leg pain, swelling in the legs, brown coloring of the skin, inflammation of the veins, blood clots, bleeding, skin ulcers or other circulatory system disorders.

Signs of varicose veins include:

Veins that are dark purple or blue in color.

Veins that appear twisted and bulging; often like cords on your legs.

When painful signs and symptoms occur, they may include:

An achy or heavy feeling in your legs.

Burning, throbbing, muscle cramping and swelling in your lower legs.

Worsened pain after sitting or standing for a long time.

Itching around one or more of your veins.

Skin ulcers near your ankle, which can mean you have a serious form of vascular disease that requires medical attention.

Spider veins are similar to varicose veins, only smaller. Spider veins are found closer to the skin’s surface and are often red or blue. They occur on the legs, but can also be found on the face.

Self-care such as exercise, elevating your legs or wearing compression stockings can help ease the pain of varicose veins and prevent them from getting worse. But if you’re concerned about how your veins look and feel, and self-care measures haven’t helped, it’s time to see your doctor.

Varicose Vein Treatments

The Ingalls Vein Clinic offers a variety of minimally invasive, outpatient treatments for varicose veins.

Laser Vein Ablation. This treatment is an outpatient procedure performed using imaging guidance.

After applying local anesthetic to the vein, an interventional radiologist inserts a thin catheter, about the size of a strand of spaghetti, into the vein, and guides it up the greater saphenous vein into the thigh. Laser or radiofrequency energy is then applied to the inside of the vein, heating and then sealing the vein closed. By closing the greater saphenous vein, the twisted and varicosed branch veins, which are close to the skin, shrink and improve in appearance. Once the diseased vein is closed, other healthy veins take over to carry blood from the leg, re-establishing normal flow.

Laser vein ablation is a quick, effective procedure that involves minimal discomfort and represents a vast improvement over the traditional option of vein stripping and ligation surgery that was often painful and required up to six weeks of recovery. After the procedure, a patient can literally walk out of the office and resume normal activities within 24 hours. Laser vein ablation boasts a 95 percent success rate.

Vein mapping helps determine if you are a candidate for laser vein ablation.

Ambulatory Phlebectomy. This is a minimally invasive surgical technique used to treat varicose veins that are not caused by saphenous vein reflux.

The abnormal vein is removed through a tiny incision or incisions using a special set of tools. The procedure is done under local anesthesia and typically takes less than an hour to perform. Recovery is rapid, and most patients do not need to interrupt regular activity after ambulatory phlebectomy.

Injection Sclerotherapy. This procedure involves injecting a solution directly into the vein, resulting in a reaction that progressively shrinks the varicose vein. If the vein is labeled as “diseased,” it may necessitate several treatments to fully fade away.

Of the various treatments available, many patients are finding sclerotherapy spider vein treatment to be an effective option. The sclerotherapy procedure typically takes 15 minutes to one hour, based on the number and overall length of the spider veins.

Information about varicose veins and treatment options is available at the Ingalls Vein Clinic at (708) 915-7518.