Varicose Veins: New Treatment Can Take Your "Blues" Away

Varicose veins – those swollen, twisted and sometimes-painful blue veins that can bulge under the skin – affect between 10 to 20 percent of Americans, the majority of whom are women. Getting rid of those unsightly veins traditionally involved surgically “stripping” the veins, an extensive procedure usually requiring general anesthesia. Now, however, St. Luke’s offers an alternative outpatient treatment option to traditional surgery: the VNUS® Closure procedure.

Closure Procedure

“With the Closure procedure, we just go under the skin with a needle and insert a tiny probe,” explains St. Luke’s Chief of Vascular Surgery Susan Bailey, MD. “The probe delivers radio-wave energy that heats – or cauterizes – the vein and causes it to close. Once the faulty vein is closed, the body re-directs the flow of blood to other healthy veins.

“The procedure is performed with only a local anesthetic,” she adds. “Because there is no incision, there is no ugly scar, and the patient generally experiences very little pain or bruising following the procedure. Recovery time is far quicker than for traditional stripping surgery, too, and patients usually can resume their normal activities within a day.”

Varicose Veins

Veins are the vessels that carry blood back to the heart and lungs to renew the blood’s oxygen supply. Healthy veins have one-way valves that allow the blood to flow up to the heart, but not back down into the veins. Varicose veins, which usually develop in the legs, can result when these valves become damaged or diseased and the veins fill up with abnormal pools of blood.

“Pregnancy is one common cause of varicose veins, because the baby’s weight presses on the veins and puts pressure on the delicate valves, causing them to work improperly,” Bailey says. “A family history of varicose veins, congenitally defective valves or obesity may also cause the condition. Working at a job where you must stand for long periods of time may increase your chances of developing varicose veins or may make them worse.”

Bailey notes that the legs have both “deep” veins that lie near the bones far below the skin’s surface and “superficial” veins directly under the skin. “The deep veins are the workhorses that pump most of the blood back up to the heart and lungs,” she says. “The superficial veins are the ones that become varicose. Varicose veins can become quite painful because they stretch the skin and cause swelling – called edema – in the leg and ankle. They also can cause itchy skin. In some cases, the veins can actually leak and cause brown discoloration of the skin.”

Research on the VNUS® Closure procedure indicates up to 90 percent of treated veins remain closed and free of blood buildup. “In a few cases, the patient may need a minor follow-up surgical procedure,” Bailey says, “but it is still a far less extensive procedure than comprehensive vein stripping.”

Contact Us

For more information about varicose veins and the VNUS® Closure procedure, you may call Dr. Bailey at (415) 970-0130.