What About My Varicose Veins? I spend a lot of time on my feet, and I’m starting to develop more and more of those ugly varicose veins and spider veins. It’s a sad thing to say, I don’t feel comfortable wearing shorts anymore.
Varicose and spider veins affect almost everyone, once they hit the age of 40, or 50 for sure. In most of the veins of the body, there are small structures called valves, which act to maintain the forward flow of the blood which is traveling in the veins back towards the heart. These valves occur both in large veins, such as the major veins that travel up the leg towards the groin area, or in towards the back of the knee. Valves also occur in the tiny veins just under the skin. It doesn’t matter in what part of the body. The vein is located, the valve prevents backwards flow of blood. If valves fail in the veins of the leg, then the result is excess pressure in the veins, and they become enlarged and twisty, and engorged with blood. It’s failure of these valves that leads to all the trouble with varicose veins and spider veins.
Varicose and spider veins are amenable to a variety of treatments such as laser, minimally invasive surgery, or injection therapy (sclerotherapy). In order to determine the best therapy, a careful examination of the veins is necessary with an ultrasound machine that is specialized to assess varicose veins. It’s impossible to properly diagnose and manage varicose and spider veins without careful ultrasound assessment.
The best the best results in the treatment of varicose veins usually involve at least one or two modalities of therapy. Gone are the days of old fashioned ‘vein stripping’. Downtime has been greatly reduced by precise and accurate diagnosis and the new technologies.