Varicose veins
When the valves in your veins stop working properly, blood can pool in your veins and cause them to bulge. This condition is called varicose veins. If you have varicose veins, you may be at risk for more serious problems, such as blood clots. Treatment options include lifestyle changes, such as exercise and weight loss, and medical procedures, such as sclerotherapy or surgery. If you're considering treatment for your varicose veins, talk to your doctor about all of your options. Surgery is an option if non-surgical treatments don't work. After surgery, most people are able to return to their normal activities within a few weeks.
Varicose vein symptoms may improve after one year from the time of surgery but can recur with aging. You can help prevent this by maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding prolonged standing, and getting up every 30 minutes while sitting down during the day to stretch your legs and walk around. For some people, these things aren't enough and they need medication to keep varicose veins under control. Your doctor will prescribe compression stockings that squeeze your leg so the circulation doesn't become too sluggish. These stockings come in different degrees of tightness depending on how severe your Varicose veins are. You should wear these stockings all day long even when you're sleeping because it will allow less pooling of blood in your lower extremities. I’ve seen patients who had tried many different methods for managing their varicose veins before finally having surgery. The success rate was much higher in those who started with surgical management early on, rather than waiting until other options failed.
The good news is that there are now many new minimally invasive techniques available to treat varicose veins. With newer techniques, patients typically recover faster and experience fewer complications and pain than with traditional open surgical techniques like endovenous ablation (EVAR). Endovenous ablation: A technique where doctors insert catheters into your vein through an incision near the groin area. Doctors use these catheters to create scar tissue inside the enlarged vein which causes it to shrink over time. Results vary based on the size of the vessel treated and the number of sessions needed.