Many people think getting rid of varicose veins is a long, drawn-out, or difficult procedure. We’re here to tell you that it’s not. At the Vein Clinic of Greater Kansas City, we have many ways to treat your varicose veins and the good news is they are all fast and effective. Every patient is different and some require fewer treatments than others. This is why personalized vein treatment plans are so critical. So if you’re worried about taking time off work, lots of downtime, hospitalization, or whatever is keeping you from fixing your varicose veins, you can stop worrying and take action.
Varicose Vein Treatments Are Fast
While it may take more than one treatment to remove your varicose veins, (these are typically spread over 3-4 months) the good news is that the treatments themselves are fast (two hours or less) so they’re easy to fit into your daily schedule. Another nice thing is that there is no downtime involved. The procedures are done in our office (no hospitalization required) and you can go back to work afterward. Compression stockings are all that’s required.
Many Varicose Vein Treatment Options
Just to give you an idea of your options, here are all the ways we treat varicose veins with information about how each treatment is done, how long it takes, and recovery details.
Ablation and Sclerotherapy
The body is an amazing machine. With ablation and sclerotherapy treatments, the varicose veins are “damaged” to cause closure of the broken veins and the body simply absorbs the damaged veins as waste material. Blood then naturally re-routes to normal working veins allowing for proper blood flow and circulation. While we can’t promise some of your existing veins won’t develop into varicose veins over the years to come, we can tell you that the varicose veins you have today will be gone.
Types of Ablation We Offer
We offer several different types of venous ablation. Ablation is safe, less invasive than surgery, and leaves virtually no scars. The treatments usually take less than two hours. You can expect some bruising, but that is completely normal and will go away over time. You will be instructed to wear compression stockings for about a week and avoid heavy exercise, but otherwise, you can resume your normal activities with no downtime.
Radio Frequency Ablation
With RFA, we heat the wall of the problem vein using temperature-controlled radio-frequency energy. This heat shrinks the vein and seals it shut. The closed vein is treated as waste by the body and is absorbed over time.
Laser Vein Ablation
Rather than radiofrequency energy, a laser fiber will be put into the vein. When slowly pulled out, it will heat up the length of the vein causing it to close up and shrink.
Varithena Chemical Ablation
With Varithena chemical ablation, we use ultrasound guidance to place a specialized chemical foam into the varicose veins that cannot be treated with radiofrequency or laser ablation. The chemical causes the vein to collapse and shrink.
Sclerotherapy
With sclerotherapy, we place a chemical liquid into the veins causing them to close. Once again, the vein is absorbed by the body naturally. This treatment is used on varicose veins when an ablation cannot be utilized on problematic skin surface veins.
Ambulatory Phlebectomy
Unlike ablation, ambulatory phlebectomy is the physical removal of the veins. This is an outpatient procedure as well, performed in our office in which we remove problematic bulging surface veins. After the skin is numbed with a local anesthetic, very small punctures are made and the vein is removed. This procedure takes 1-2 hours and the benefits are amazing. No stitches are necessary. Minimal downtime is required and patients can expect to resume normal activity.