Having performed over 5000 sclerotherapy procedures, the most difficult legs to treat are those with what I refer to as hidden reticular veins or feeders.
Reticular veins are blue surface veins that are usually present in the outside part of the thigh and lower leg. They are also referred to as “feeders” as they feed the smaller spider veins. Phlebology 101 teaches you to treat these feeders first before even attempting to treat the spider veins. This way you can ensure permanent and successful results and help avoid matting.
However, the difficulty arises when your treating Phlebologist can’t see the feeders, either because they are too small or they have collapsed due to stress or lying down for too long or maybe because they are slightly below the surface of the skin. In the past, when this problem arose, using a Duplex Ultrasound Machine to help visualise these hidden veins helped solve the problem. However, sometimes, the veins are too small to be able to see on the ultrasound and too superficial to be able to inject them successfully with ultrasound guidance.
This is where transillumination with an infrared device is ideal. Transillumination of the underlying reticular Veins helps the treating Phlebologist visualise the veins for treatment with Sclerotherapy.
AccuVein can help in Sclerotherapy procedures to:
- Show the veins to patients
- Locate feeder veins
- Show foam Sclerosant in real time
- Highlight veins during transdermal laser therapy
- Map veins for Ambulatory Phlebectomy
- Visually confirm efficacy of procedure
By using vein illumination with these breakthrough devices, many veins that might be otherwise undetectable without a vein locator, can be located and mapped on the patient’s skin.
An Invaluable Tool
When I am performing Sclerotherapy procedures, the AccuVein helps me assess and identify veins that require treatment. This allows for a more efficient and effective process which then translates into procedures with less patient discomfort and higher patient satisfaction.
This is why Vein Health Medical Clinic has chosen to incorporate this revolutionary device into the daily treatment routine.
