Varicose Vein Treatment in Lucknow

Varicose veins are leg veins that have become enlarged, twisted and visible under the skin. Veins carry blood back to the heart, and small one-way valves inside them stop it sliding backwards. When those valves weaken, blood leaks back down and pools, and the vein wall stretches.

The tendency often runs in families. Long hours of standing at work, several pregnancies, age and extra weight add to the strain. An earlier clot in a leg vein can also damage the valves.

• Aching or heaviness in the legs, worse by evening and better when you lift them up.
• Swollen ankles and cramps at night.
• Itching or darker skin around the ankle, a sign that blood has been pooling for some time.
• Sores near the ankle that heal slowly or keep coming back.

Fine red or blue spider veins in the skin are a milder, related problem. They seldom cause symptoms and are usually treated for appearance. Enlarged veins in the scrotum are a different condition, called a varicocele.

The scan shows what the eye cannot see, which is where the blood is leaking. The veins you can see are often the end of the problem, while the leak starts higher up, at the groin or behind the knee.

Colour Doppler is a scan that also shows the direction and speed of blood flow. For varicose veins it is usually done with you standing, so that gravity makes any backward flow, called reflux, easy to see. The radiologist looks for four things.

• Which veins leak, and where the leak begins.
• How wide and how long each vein is, which affects the choice of treatment.
• Whether the deep veins are open. If a deep vein is blocked, the surface veins may be acting as a bypass and should not be closed.
• Whether there is an old clot or another cause for the swelling.

The scan uses sound waves, so there is no radiation and no injection. It also gives your doctor a record to compare with after treatment.

Treatment ranges from simple measures to closing the faulty vein. Which one suits you depends on the scan, your symptoms and your health. These are the usual choices.

• Compression stockings squeeze the leg so blood moves upward. They ease aching and swelling, and are the first step for many people. They do not remove veins that are already enlarged. They are not suitable when the leg arteries are poorly supplied, so your doctor checks the foot pulses first.
• Leg care at home: walking, resting with the legs raised, avoiding long spells of standing still, and keeping weight in a healthy range.
• Endovenous treatment closes the faulty vein from the inside. A thin tube is passed into the vein under ultrasound guidance, and heat (laser or radiofrequency) or a medical glue seals it. Blood then flows through healthier veins nearby.
• Foam or liquid sclerotherapy is an injection that irritates the lining of smaller veins so that they close and fade.
• Surgery to tie off and remove veins is still used, mainly when the other methods do not suit the veins.

Endovenous treatment is often done as a day procedure with local anaesthetic, and an injection needs only a fine needle. This depends on the vein and on where the procedure is carried out. The treating team sets how long you wear compression afterwards.

Treatment closes or removes the veins that leak now, but it does not stop new ones from forming. Varicose veins can come back in the same leg or in another vein, particularly while the cause, such as family tendency, long standing or weight, is still there. Staying active and keeping a healthy weight may help, but nothing removes the chance.

Every method has risks, and your doctor should explain them before you agree.

• Bruising, tenderness or a tight, cord-like feeling along the treated vein, which usually settles over weeks.
• Brownish staining of the skin over the vein, which can take months to fade.
• Inflammation of a vein near the treated area, called phlebitis.
• Patches of numb or tingling skin from irritation of a small nerve, usually temporary.
• The vein not closing fully, so that a second treatment is needed.
• Rarely, a blood clot in a deep leg vein that can travel to the lungs. This is why leg swelling or chest symptoms after treatment must be reported at once.

The decision rests on your symptoms, the Doppler findings and your general health, and it is made together with your own doctor. A procedure is usually advised when varicose veins cause pain, swelling, skin changes, ulcers or repeated inflammation. Veins that only bother you for their looks can be discussed too, and that is a personal choice.

Treatment is usually put off during pregnancy, and after a recent leg clot it is handled differently. Your doctor will say what applies to you.

Send your referral, earlier scans and reports to the team. We review them first. Whether treatment is then carried out at our centre or elsewhere, and by which doctor, is confirmed only after that review. The Doppler vein scan itself is a test we do at the centre. The full range of interventional radiology procedures is listed on its own page.