2 Treatments For Varicose Veins

Varicose veins can happen anywhere in your body, but for the majority of the time, they are going to happen in your legs. That's because the veins have to work against gravity to get the blood back up to your body. The veins in your legs have little valves every so often. Those valves are there to allow the blood to flow up. When the valve is open, blood can move up.

Then the valve closes and keeps the blood where it is and not flowing back into your leg. At least, that's how it's supposed to work. When the valves start to fail in your veins, it lets the blood pool back down in your leg and can cause those varicose veins. They can be unsightly and painful. So, what can you do to treat them?

1. Support Hosiery

One thing you can do is to wear some support hosiery, especially if you are going to be on your feet a lot. These support stockings are designed to fit tightly to your leg, but not so tightly that they are cutting off your circulation. They will just help give your veins a little extra support. Support hosiery can also help with pain by keeping everything compressed and keeping the blood from pooling in those damaged areas as much. 

2. Vein Stripping

Vein stripping is a surgical procedure. If you choose to do this, then you need to have a vascular surgeon be the person who performs the procedure. The way that this works is that the surgeon will cut some small incisions in your legs. After they have done this, they will then start to pull the damaged vein out of your leg. Generally, this is done for deeper or larger veins, since an ambulatory phlebectomy, which can be done as an out-patient procedure, can usually be done for the smaller, more superficial veins.

After you have had the vein stripping procedure done, your surgeon may keep you in the hospital for a day or two, depending on how much work they had to do. They may also want you to limit how much you are on your feet until you can heal more, just so that you have the best chance to heal. 

If you have varicose veins, you want to get them dealt with because they can be painful and ugly. There are a number of treatments that your doctor can suggest. For more information, contact your local vascular procedure center.