Most varicose vein problems can now be treated safely, effectively, and practically painlessly with an exciting office procedure called sclerotherapy.

What is Sclerotherapy?

Sclerotherapy (the evaluation and treatment of varicose veins via the injection of a sclerosing chemical into the diseased veins) is a precise, highly technical cosmetic procedure.  

 

 

The Procedure

The doctor, called a medical phlebologist, first takes a generalized health history from the patient then performs a detailed examination of the patient's venous system.  Depending upon the degree of vein disease and patient symptoms, special instruments ( a listening device called a Doppler, a duplex ultrasound machine which makes images of the veins deep in the legs and groin, and a D-PPG machine (Digital PhotoPlethysmograph) which measures the function of the patients' venous system) may be used to help the phlebologist determine exactly what is causing varicose veins and precisely where sclerotherapy injection should be placed to obtain the best results.  Then, once the examination is completed, the physician makes a specific treatment plan of sclerotherapy injection therapy, compression stockings, and sometimes combined therapy involving sclerotherapy injections and a minor operation called an ambulatory phlebotomy.

The sclerotherapy injection procedure itself is done as follows: the physician, usually under magnification, systematically and according to his treatment plan injects a tiny amount of a special chemical called a sclerosing agent deep into the varicose veins.  Special needles and syringes are used to insure a precise injection.  Sometimes the injection is even guided by ultrasound.  When all veins that can be injected are treated, special dressings and a special stocking called a pressure gradient stocking are placed over the treated leg or legs.  Post treatment instructions are given and the patient is sent home.

Patients are advised to take a brisk 15 to 20 minute walk immediately following sclerotherapy, and usually the patient can go right back to work with no interruption of their daily activity schedule.

 

 

Follow-up Treatment

A day or two following treatment, the patient is usually telephoned by a medical assistant to check how things are going.  Then, in about six to eight weeks Dr. Simpson will examine the treated areas to check the effects of the sclerotherapy treatment.  If things have gone as expected, treated veins has been scarred from the inside and they have begun to dry up and finally disappear.  If additional treatments are necessary, remaining veins are treated again, and so forth.  Simple spider veins usually require just one or two treatments, but deeper reticular veins and larger varicose veins may be treated two, three or even more times depending upon the patient's individual response to treatment, how ell the patient follows after treatment advice, and how bad the venous disease is.