New Treatment Helps Varicose Veins With Radiowaves
A new technique uses
radiofrequency energy to help shrivel varicose veins -- the unsightly,
painful bulges that appear on the legs when blood pools in the veins.
People who have undergone the office-based procedure can return to
normal activities almost immediately, rather than after a 3-week
recuperation period that typically follows vein stripping, or surgical
removal of the veins. The procedure also leaves fewer, less noticeable
scars than vein stripping. It's a more attractive alternative. In the
new technique, a small incision is made behind the knee and a catheter
(a hollow flexible tube) is threaded into the vein. A radiofrequency
probe attached to the catheter releases energy and heat inside the vein,
causing it to shrink and close off.
Since varicose veins
are caused by a backflow of blood in the saphenous vein (the largest
vein in the leg) and smaller branch veins, the closure should remedy the
leg fatigue, pain, and itchiness that frequently plague patients. Larger
veins should no longer be a problem, although existing spider veins
(tiny veins close to the skin surface) will not necessarily disappear. Phlebectomy, a procedure to remove the branch veins, can be done at the
same time as the radiology technique.
With the new
technique, unlike vein stripping, there is no permanent scarring, no
need for general anesthetic, no radiation and relatively little blood
loss. It is far less invasive than traditional vein stripping,'' and it
is comparable in price. About 25 centers in the United States now have
radiologists who perform this technique.
25th Annual
Scientific Meeting of the Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional
Radiology, held in San Diego, California March 27, 2000.
Scheduled to be
published in the Journal of Vascular and Intervention Radiology in the
near future.
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