Treating and managing varicose veins
Varicose veins cannot be cured, but these procedures can lessen their visibility and ease discomfort:
- Elevation: Raising your legs above your waist multiple times during the day will improve blood flow and lower vein pressure.
- Elastic stockings: Compress your veins with supportive stockings or socks to ease discomfort. Your veins are prevented from elongating by the compression, which improves blood flow.
- Sclerotherapy, also known as injection therapy, involves a medical professional injecting a solution into a vein. The vein walls adhere to one another as a result of the solution. Your vein eventually disappears and becomes scar tissue.
- Laser therapy: During endovenous thermal ablation, a minimally invasive technique, medical professionals use a laser and a catheter, a long, thin tube to seal off a damaged vein.
- Vein surgery: during these procedures, also called ligation and stripping, the surgeon ties off your affected vein (ligation) to stop blood from pooling. The surgeon may remove (strip) the vein to prevent varicose veins from reappearing.