Varicose Vein Surgery
What are Varicose Veins?
The blood flow in your leg normally travels from superficial veins (closer to the skin) and the deep veins (deeper to the skin) towards the heart. This flow of blood in your veins is reliant on one-way valves inside the blood vessels, which stop the blood from going backwards. If these valves do not work properly the normal blood flow is interrupted and blood pools in the superficial veins. When this happens, the superficial veins can become distended and tortuous as they fill with blood. The two superficial veins in your leg are called the great saphenous and the short saphenous vein.
This will increase the venous blood pressure in the leg due to gravity and erect posture. This will cause chronic venous hypertension in the leg. This leads to pain, discoloration, itching and chronic ulcer formation.
Varicose vein management may include injecting a liquid sclerosant into the superficial veins to cause ablation (sclerotherapy), or alternatively tying off (ligation) and if required surgically removing (stripping) the superficial veins.
How do I prepare for the surgery?
Prior to the clinic visit, the clinic will request you to undertake a venous duplex scan to see the extent of venous back-flow (or reflux).
Please bring the results of these investigations to your consultation with Dr Perera as it will help determine the management plan and reduce the number of clinic visits you need to attend before booking the procedure.
The procedure will generally be undertaken under general anaesthesia. You may have to stay 1-2 days in the hospital after the procedure.