Venous Procedures

Varicose Vein Surgery
The cause of varicose veins isn’t certain so the aims of treatments are the removal or destruction of enlarged visible veins (varicose veins) and visible surface veins and skin care for those with venous skin changes, minimise the risk factors that seem to cause more veins to come (prolonged standing, body weight gain). Read More….

Redo Varicose Vein Surgery
Recurrent varicose veins represent a large proportion of veins seen in this practice. Patients often seek an alternative to redo surgery. They are aware that there are increased wound complications with repeat surgery and the durability is less that that of the first operation. Redo surgery will also produce more incisions on the legs. Veins are difficult to avulse if there have been numerous leg incisions due to post-operative subcutaneous fibrosis. A good treatment for these patients now is careful sequential injection of their veins. That is also what would be advised to young women before they have their family or between children i.e. selective injection of troublesome veins with a planned definitive treatment (operations or injections) after the family is completed. It is likely the benefits of this sort of long-term rather than episodic treatment will be seen 20 years later. Should the patient prefer to go through repeat varicose vein surgery the procedure will attract higher costs than the initial surgery because the surgery time is invariably extended due to the complications of scarring and fibrosis.

Conventional Sclerotherapy (Surface Sclerotherapy)
Sclerotherapy is a procedure where veins are injected with sclerosant (usually Aethoxysklerol). Sclerosant damages the lining of the vein and this causes a blood clot to form and hence the vein is blocked. Once the vein is blocked the body should dismantle it. After injection, compression is usually applied to the area with bandages or a stocking to minimise the size of the blood clot. Read More….

Ultrasound Guided Sclerotherapy
This is a new technique in which ultrasound is used to guide injections into the veins to block those veins (sclerotherapy). Conventional sclerotherapy has been used for years for small and surface veins, however, not for large veins because they were difficult to locate and there was some concern that the sclerosant injected would go into the deep veins. Read More….

Endovenous Laser Therapy (EVLT)
Endovenous laser therapy for major saphenous reflux has been in use for approximately five years in USA and Europe and two years in Australia. Results reported for more than 1000 patients show a low risk of complications and excellent short to medium-term results. This technique is used to block off either main saphenous veins by passing up a laser probe introduced through a puncture needle under local anaesthetic with ultrasound guidance. Read More….