How can varicose veins in the foot be treated?
I had ELVeS on both legs a few months ago and there are bulging veins remaining in my right foot. How can these veins be treated? Varicose veins in both calves have been treated with sclerotherapy.
Answers from doctors (10)
If the more proximal abnormal leg veins have already been treated, the veins in your feet may simply be normal prominent veins which we all have on the hands and feet. Undesirable tortuous foot and hand veins may be treated by either sclerotherapy or phlebectomy.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Yes, varicose veins in the feet can be treated with sclerotherapy. One
should be sure there are no other sources of venous insufficiency before
committing your hard earned money to this effort.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
They can be treated with sclerotherapy or microphlebectomy. The choice depends partly on the size of the vein and the experience of the doctor.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Just make sure you have follow up appointments to make sure that all of the veins in the legs that can be treated are treated. As far as the veins in the foot, most doctors would not touch those due to the fact that there are many nerves in the feet and the risk of damaging nerves is far greater than the need to treat those veins. It is possible to find a doctor who might inject those veins with sclero. That would be the safest way to do it.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Yes, those veins can be treated with caution when treating veins in the feet. In our office, we use sclerotherapy for treatment.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Foot veins can be treated by either sclerotherapy or, if they are bigger veins by microphlebectomies.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Sclerotherapy or phlebectomy. Depends on the veins.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Treatable foot veins can be removed by ambulatory phlebectomy.
Some are normally distended appearing and should not be treated.
I'm sure your ELVeS physician can help you.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
The varicose veins in your right foot may be actual varicose veins or pronounced reticular veins - it is rather hard to determine without actually seeing them. Since your practitioner chooses to treat varicose veins with sclerotherapy, I find it interesting that they did not inject the veins on your foot.
However, it is our practice to treat varicosities (varicose veins) by micro-stab phlebectomy. It is a technique wherein we use an ophthalmic blade (a scalpel used for eye surgery) which is very small. A tiny incision is made directly over or just next to the offending vein. The area is of course numbed, prior to the procedure, with a local anesthesia which contains epinephrine which is a vasoconstrictor. This causes the vein to shrink and push the blood out of the vessel. A very small hook is used to retrieve the vein and it is then removed. Thus the varicosity is actually removed, as opposed to allowing the vein to remain in the body to scar down (as in sclerotherapy).
This procedure could easily be performed on veins in the foot, as it is elsewhere on the leg, with very minimal discomfort and with a brief recovery time of a few days.
A brief post-script regarding sclerotherapy and varicose veins: Sclerotherapy is a very good treatment when used with spider veins and reticular veins.Using sclerosing agents in large amounts for varicose veins however may often carry with it several risk factors, not the least of which is thrombophlebitis.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
If all of the major sources of reflux above the ankles have been treated, we usually use microphlebectomy to remove large, ropy varicose veins from the top of the foot if they are distressing to the patient.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
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