Introduction | Venous Disease

Some 25 million american face a daily struggle with the swollen, dilated veins that can cause throbbing pain, sever swelling and heavy tired legs.

Venous insufficiency is a result of the progressive deterioration of the function of valves in the superficial veins. The function of the venous valves is to maintain the circulation of the blood back toward the heart. Depending on family history, hormonal influences and environmental factors the valves can progressively deteriorate leading to venous insufficiency or venous reflux disease.

Once it appears, venous reflux disease never goes away by itself. It is a progressive condition that can only worsen unless treated. As a result of incompetent valves, blood will pool in the lower extremity effectively dilating tributary veins which become varicose veins. This can lead to leg swelling, discoloration of the ankles and ultimately, the development of skin breakdown called venous ulcers. Fortunately, the minimally invasive, deivce -based advances in medical technology that have so profoundly impacted other fields of medicine in recent years are now having a similarly revolutionary impact on the treatment of venous insufficiency. endothermal venous ablation, EVTA or the VNUS Closure procedures a dramatic improvement in the treatment of varicose veins effectively eliminating the need for "vein stripping".

Spider veins represent the very small dermal veins that often present an unsightly appearance in the legs. Twenty-five percent of patients with spider veins have concurrent venous insufficiency. Treatment of spider veins not only includes treatment of the underlying venous insufficiency, if present, but treatment of the spider veins themselves.

The gold standard of treatment of spider veins is through sclerotherapy or the injection of a sclerosing agent into the veins to effectively eliminate them. Other methods of treatment, including laser, can be effective, however injection sclerotherapy is considered the first line treatment because the sclerosing solution can be directed at "feeder veins' that are the source of refluxing blood into the spider veins.

The development of vein ulcers is usually due to the presence of what is known as incompetent perforator veins. Perforator veins connect the superficial venous system to the deep venous system. When incompetent, blood is directed from the deep system to the superficial system and creates an abnormal collection of blood in the ankle breaking down the overlying skin. These veins are successfully treated with ultrasound-guided scleptherapy or ultrasound-guided EVTA. Both of these techniques are office based, minimally invasive ultrasound guided procedures done in our Vein Center.

This information was taken from VNUS ClosureFAST™.com.