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For the millions of people who have varicose veins — the issue affects up to 30% of the general population — solutions are better than ever thanks to advanced medications and laser therapies that can make quick work of varicose and spider veins without much fuss.
For some people, however, these minimally invasive approaches may not be adequate for their varicose veins. Though this doesn't happen often, it does happen.
To explain why, we turn to vascular expert Dr. Satjit Bhusri and his team at The Upper East Side Vein Institute. Our practice is dedicated to treating spider veins, varicose veins, and reticular veins, and we have a suite of excellent treatment options, including surgical removal if necessary. And we dive into when that might be necessary here.
Large varicose veins
Most reticular and varicose veins are about 3mm to 6mm in diameter, and a large majority of these veins respond well to our minimally invasive treatments, including:
If you have varicose veins that are on the larger side — more than 5 or 6mm in diameter, these minimally invasive treatments may not be as effective, making surgery a better option.
Symptomatic varicose veins
Many people with varicose veins don’t develop symptoms — the veins are more of a cosmetic concern.
Still, plenty of people do develop symptoms that can have no small impact on their health and quality of life. These symptoms include:
- Achiness in the legs
- Itchiness around the veins
- Edema
- Restless leg syndrome
- Venous ulcers
These symptoms typically accompany severely varicose veins that are mostly the result of chronic venous insufficiency, which affects between 10% and 35% of adults in the United States.
So, when serious symptoms like the ones we describe above develop, we may need to get more aggressive in removing these veins through surgery.
Varicose veins that don’t respond to treatment
Each of the vein treatments that we offer boasts great satisfaction rates that are well over 90%, which means they work quite well.
If, however, you’re in the small minority of patients in which the minimally invasive treatment fails to eliminate the vein, surgery is the next logical step.
A word about vein surgery
We want to end with a quick word about varicose vein surgery, which is referred to as stripping and ligation. We usually perform this on an outpatient basis, which means you can go home the same day.
The procedure typically takes one to three hours, and you’ll need someone to take you home because we use sedation or general anesthesia.
Your recovery will take a couple of weeks, but you’ll be able to move around (we encourage this), so the downtime isn’t too cumbersome.
The best way to figure out whether your varicose veins are surgical or not is to sit down with one of our specialists. Get the ball rolling by calling our New York City office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 212-752-3464. Additionally, you can schedule your appointment online by clicking here.