For Venous Insufficiency Explained by Vascular Surgeon Dr. Goldbach
Laser vein treatment is a non-invasive procedure that is provided on an outpatient basis and is covered by most medical insurance providers because venous insufficiency is a dangerous vein disease that does not go away on its own, putting a person’s life at risk of developing a deadly blood clot.
Spring Hill vascular surgeon Dr. Goldbach has treated hundreds of patients suffering from venous insufficiency using laser vein treatment (endovenous laser therapy) and now all these patients are living life to the fullest enjoying healthy blood circulation through their legs.
Dr. Goldbach Explains The Vein Treatment Process Step-By-Step
“Your ultrasound showed that you have venous insufficiency in one or more of the veins in your leg.
As we get older, spend more time on our feet, genetics, maybe gain a little weight we see that some of the veins in our legs dilate.
When we are standing for a long period of time or sitting for a long period of time, there are valves inside of these veins that shut and hold the blood at that level. This keeps gravity from pulling this blood down to the bottom of our legs.
As the veins dilate, these veins get pulled apart and it can get to a point where the vein valves no longer meet in the middle.
This allows the venous blood to get pulled to the bottom of our leg.
This can cause a lot of different symptoms including muscle spasms, muscle aches, restless legs, varicose veins, swelling and spider veins.
This is venous insufficiency.
So how do we treat it?
We offer a laser vein treatment procedure in the office called an EVLT, which stands for endovenous laser therapy.
Once your leg is prepped and I’m in my sterile gear, I numb up your leg where I access the vein.
I insert the laser through this access. I inject fluid around the vein to numb up the area.
I then turn the laser on and pull it back, closing the vein from the inside.
We are targeting the area where the vein connects to the deep vein and the segment just beyond that.
This is where we have most of the dilation, resulting in most of the valvular dysfunction, therefore allowing the blood to pool in your leg.
If you have varicose veins, we can talk about treating these veins at the time of the endovenous laser therapy.
Treatment is with a procedure called a micro stab phlebectomy.
During this procedure, I numb up the area over the varicose veins and create a micro incision with a needle.
I then hook the vein and remove it.
This will add time onto the procedure and maybe some more tenderness along the area that we treat. But overall recovery should be about the same length.
Once this is completed we will wrap your leg with an ace wrap. We recommend keeping this ace wrap on for 24 hours.
You can remove this ace wrap at home, and then we recommend compression therapy for 10 days.
Four or five days after the laser vein treatment we will schedule an ultrasound. This ultrasound is checking 2 specific things.
Number one, to make sure the vein segment that we treated is closed appropriately.
And number two, to make sure we do not have a blood clot that extends from the vein we closed into the deep vein.
This is a known complication of the procedure but very rare…less than 1%.
Most people will experience tenderness along the course of the vein that we treated, that on average lasts 3-7 days.
The minority of people will have minimal or no discomfort over the area we treated, or they can have tenderness that can last a couple of weeks.
After you have recovered from your procedure and we have gone through the results of your post operative ultrasound, we can discuss treating other veins if necessary.
Are You Suffering From Venous Insufficiency?
Have you been experiencing leg pain, leg cramps, and tenderness in your legs?
Do your legs get swollen and are you starting to notice spider veins and varicose veins on your legs?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be suffering from venous insufficiency.
It’s important to know that venous insufficiency is a very dangerous vein disease. And If it’s not treated, it can put you at risk of developing a blood clot in your leg veins, that can travel to your lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism…that can be fatal.
If you think you have venous insufficiency, you should schedule a vein consultation with one of the vascular surgeons at The Vein and Vascular Institute of Spring Hill to determine if your symptoms are related to venous insufficiency.
If you are diagnosed with venous insufficiency, a vascular ultrasound will be recommended to confirm the diagnosis and to discover the malfunctioning veins that need to be treated.
Then, our vascular surgeons will treat your malfunctioning veins using endovenous laser ablation (laser vein treatment) to close the diseased veins.
Using endovenous laser ablation, our vascular surgeons have treated thousands of patients that were suffering from venous insufficiency and varicose veins. And now these patients are able to enjoy life with healthy legs again.
To schedule a vein consultation with one of our board certified vascular surgeons, give us a call at (352) 505-1737.
