Say Goodbye To Severe Varicose Veins

Varicose veins are an old problem – Hippocrates and the ancient Egyptians wrote about them – and for many seniors, they are an unfortunate rite of passage. Half of all Americans over 50, and two-thirds of women over 60, suffer from those big ropey leg veins. The problem is far more than cosmetic – the pain, swelling and leg fatigue can really discourage an active lifestyle, and severe varicose veins can even cause chronic infections and skin ulcerations.

Varicose veins generally occur when the valves fail in the primary leg vein, called the greater saphenous. Those valves are supposed to push blood back up towards the heart, but when they cannot do the job anymore, the blood pools up in the veins. Women with more than two children and people who work on their feet, like nurses and teachers, are particularly at risk. Heredity and obesity are also factors. It is a pretty common problem – I have seen patients younger than 20 and older than 90.

In the dark ages before the 21^st Century, the only surgical treatment was stripping out the saphenous vein, a painful and barbaric procedure that required a general anesthetic and weeks of recovery. Needless to say, most patients avoided that operation if they could, and I still see lots of patients who have been suffering for decades and thought vein stripping was the only alternative. They are delighted to find out that medical technology has finally caught up with varicose veins. We now have minimally-invasive office procedures that can deal with the problem in minutes.

The breakthrough uses the same kind of technology used for heart interventions. Under a local anesthetic, we thread a catheter, about the thickness of a spaghetti noodle, into the vein to heat it from within and seal it off, rather than removing it. I use a device called Venefit™ Targeted Endovenous Therapy. It uses radiofrequency energy to seal a typical vein in three to five minutes.

My patients are continuously amazed by the speed and comfort of this technique. The only discomfort the patient feels is a couple of needle sticks. Once the vein is sealed, the body automatically re-routes blood flow through healthier vessels and normal circulation is restored. Symptoms quickly disappear, and the sealed vein is eventually absorbed by the body.

Because the procedure is so simple, it can be performed as an outpatient procedure where patients are in and out in well under an hour. We encourage patients to get up and walk immediately after the procedure. Most return to normal activity the very next day. The pain and fatigue disappear almost instantly, and the swollen veins begin to deflate in a week or two.

This procedure is considered a medical necessity, rather than cosmetic surgery, so it is covered by Medicare and most insurers. That clears away the one final barrier to longtime varicose vein sufferers seeking treatment. As a result we are seeing lots of new patients these days.

More men than ever before are requesting the procedure – having one’s varicose veins treated is no longer considered unmanly. And we have gotten a rush of interest in the technology from active seniors in their 70s and 80s – their middle-aged children are undergoing the procedure, and when the parents see the results, they want the treatment themselves. I have had patients tell me they are wearing shorts for the first time in 40 years.

There is so much media buzz about technology today that sometimes the simplest and most important breakthroughs get lost in the noise. For almost a hundred years, progress on treating varicose veins was, like the surgery itself, slow and painful. Now we have a fast and virtually painless way to change a patient’s life in a couple of minutes, and that’s a great feeling for a physician. 

For more information, call 630-963-4000. 

Stamatis (Tom) Dimitropoulos, MD, works in Vascular Medicine, Interventional Cardiology, at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital.

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