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Sep 8, 2007 9:52 am US/Central
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Lifeline: Eliminating Varicose Veins
by Dennis Douda
(WCCO)
Varicose veins affect up to one in four women. They're not just unsightly, they can be so painful they're debilitating. Fears of surgery and scars keep some people from seeking relief.
Kim Daughton is way too young for a rocking chair but has too discomfort to stand.
"So I've kind of learned through trial and error ... that I can't stand for more than a couple minutes without my legs going numb," said Daughton
The problem of varicose veins goes beyond the pain. They've made Daughton self-conscious.
"I saw the bulging come out of my calves and wearing shorts was kind of out of the question most of the time," she said.
Varicose veins often run in the family. Pregnancy can make them worse. They're caused when valves inside the veins fail and gravity becomes the patient's enemy.
"When they stand up blood backs up into the vein ... that pressure that's in that vein then gets transmitted to the branches of the vein and those branches then become dilated and they hurt," said Park Nicollet vascular surgeon Jeffrey Mendeloff.
Board certified vascular surgeon Mendeloff used two procedures on Daughton. Ultrasound helps pinpoint the saphenous vein's position deep within the leg. Then, through a single puncture he inserts a device called the VNUS Closure Fast Catheter.
At the tip of the catheter is a coil of wire that emits a controlled series of radio waves to create heat. That seals the vein from the groin to the knee. The process only takes a few minutes.
"The main thing is by treating the greater saphenous vein you're treating the underlying cause of varicose veins, and that should eliminate the chance of recurrence, or greatly decrease the chance of recurrence," said Mendeloff.
While speed is an advantage, the real blessing is recovery time. Patients are often back to work in two to three days, while it could take four or five weeks of recovery time for a traditional vein stripping.
Dr. Mendeloff removed some veins, the bulging surface veins that made Daughton self-conscious. A series of tiny punctures allows him to clamp the veins shut, snip them into pieces and then pull them out.
Three weeks later Daughton said she was re-energized. She can keep up with her kids, and cosmetically she is thrilled.
"You know even before the bulges you could see the veins kind of surfacing, so you could see the darker green veins. That's completely gone too, so I'm really happy," Daughton said.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)