I had ultrasounds and my left leg supposedly has blood flowing south in the superficial vein. I have no pain, leg cramps, nothing. The spider veins are unsightly and I grow concerned to remove that one cluster where I cut my leg at the spider vein area last year and it would not stop bleeding until pressure wrapped. Can I just have the spider veins removed now and wait for the Venefit procedure until next year? I am concerned about developing blood clots from Venefit.
From your description, you likely have venous hypertension which is creating high pressure in the small spider veins which explains the uncontrolled bleeding. You would be an excellent candidate for Venefit treatment. Treating just the spider veins would do very little to correct your problem and the likelihood of blood clots is extremely low after treatment.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Vein ablations should be performed for leg pain or swelling. Spider veins can be injected at the patient's request.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
If you do not have a lot of symptoms (i.e. leg pains, swelling, cramping, aching, ravines, itching or burning, etc.), I say wait on treating your veins. If you inject them they may come back quicker than if you treated the superficial insufficiency than if you don't treat the leaky valves and superficial insufficiency. That being said, you can try sclerotherapy and see if this helps, especially the superficial veins that are bleeding. Try just injecting the bothersome ones and see if this helps.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Yes, you could probably just have the spider veins treated. If they are due to the reflux, they may not completely go away. But there is no harm in just doing that, and I have done exactly that with many patients.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
If you don't have any symptoms, you can wait before deciding on the Venefit procedure. Just try compression stockings in the meantime and see if your legs feel better.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Do Venefit before spider vein treatment.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
You can have the spider veins treated first and do a closure procedure at a later time. However, if the reflux is the source of the spider and reticular veins, there may be a high recurrence rate. Also, the chance of developing blood clots from a closure procedure, when done by an experienced physician, is extremely low.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
It is unlikely that you will have a good result from sclerotherapy of the spider veins alone, unless they are unrelated to the reflux ("south" flow). The risk of blood clots following endovenous ablation (i.e. Venefit) are uncommon. I would recommend discussing this directly with the physician that performed your evaluation, but I would expect that you will need to do the Venefit first and then sclerotherapy afterwards.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Yes, but if your larger GSV is refluxing "going south," it's not likely that the spider vein treatment will last forever.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
Firstly, if you have a bleed from spider veins, you can apply a little local pressure and elevate with the leg above the heart--it will stop. A cotton ball and tape for a little longer will keep it closed. If there are no symptoms, you can do a trial of compression stockings and see if your legs feel better. Often, symptoms occur so gradually you think this is normal for you. However, there are many people who have some reflux without adverse effects. Insurance will not cover procedures with no symptoms. I recommend a second opinion with a board certified surgeon who specializes in treating varicose veins. You can treat a small area with injections as long as the feeder veins are treated. If you have true reflux, results may be short lived.
Published on Jul 11, 2012
The Venefit procedure was designed to replace vein stripping procedures. Spider veins are not an indication for vein stripping, nor should they be an indication for the Venefit procedure, except in unusual circumstances. Spider veins are treated with sclerotherapy. Incidentally, the risk for DVT from the Venefit procedure isn't zero.
Published on Jul 11, 2012