How to remove leg veins without surgery if they are enlarged with varicose veins? Many people want to get rid of the ugly dilated veins on the legs, which are not only ugly, but dangerous to health. But you can do without surgery or is there no other way?
How does the disease develop?
Is it possible to cure varicose veins without surgery? To answer this question, it is necessary to consider what happens to the vein during the development of the disease.
Pathology develops in several stages:
- vein valves weaken, cease to interfere with reverse blood flow;
- gradually the valve insufficiency increases and the vessel begins to stretch to accommodate a large amount of returned fluid;
- as the venous wall is stretched, more and more blood is retained in the deformed section of the vessel, and congestion occurs, which worsen the blood flow rate;
- in the future, the process spreads to the nearby parts of the vessel and causes malnutrition of nearby tissues.
But is vein removal always necessary? Are there ways to get rid of varicose veins without surgery?
When is conservative treatment possible?
In the early stages of the development of the disease, the operation to remove the vein in the legs is not performed; to restore the full functioning of the venous valve, it is enough to restore the tone to the vessel.
But conservative therapy should be comprehensive and include:
- changing the patient's lifestyle;
- power correction;
- compression effect;
- medication intake.
Lifestyle change
Insufficient physical activity or, conversely, excessive physical exertion, insufficient rest and bad habits: all this provokes a violation of blood circulation in the leg.
Lifestyle changes help restore vascular tone. To do this you need:
- Provide dosed physical activity. Hiking, swimming, yoga, or fitness without strength exercise are excellent ways to increase vascular tone and narrow the venous lumen. And if the clearance decreases, then the valve will completely adhere to the vessel wall, preventing backfilling. In the very early stages of development, sports exercises are one of the main methods of how to cure varicose veins without surgery.
- Organize a work and rest schedule. If it is not possible to avoid a long stay while working on your legs, then during rest you need to sit with your legs slightly upward, and during work do not stand still, but step over your legs, causing contraction of the calf muscles. Regular muscle contraction will increase vascular tone.
- Quit smoking and drink only small amounts of alcohol. If the sick person continues to smoke and drink, then soon he will have to undergo surgery for phlebectomy.
Diet Correction
When varicose veins are treated without surgery, what a person eats plays an important role.
Exclude from the menu:
- hot spices;
- fatty and fried foods;
- carbonated drinks;
- baked goods.
You need to limit the amount of sweets. It is better to replace sweets or cakes with homemade jam, honey and dried fruits.
The menu needs to include a large amount of seafood:
- squid;
- mussels;
- seaweed;
- shrimp.
Seafood contains copper, which has a tonic effect on venous tone.
In addition to the above products, it is recommended to eat more plant foods and drink natural juices and fruit drinks. It is allowed to eat liver and lean meats.
Compression action
This is bandaging and wearing elastic underwear (stockings, leggings). Elastic underwear is put on while lying down without getting out of bed in the morning and removed in the evening before going to bed, the same applies to bandaging. Compression therapy helps prevent further stretching of the venous wall and reduce the negative consequences of the disease.
Compression underwear is also recommended to be worn in the postoperative period, this will help make the rehabilitation shorter and ensure the rapid restoration of full blood supply to the limb.
But compression therapy does not serve as an independent method to help avoid surgery to remove veins in the legs. It only helps to prevent the negative consequences associated with the developing impairment of venous blood flow.
Medication
Patients are prescribed medications to increase venous tone.
Venotonics can be prescribed in tablets, ointments or injections, but their dosage is selected individually, depending on the severity of the pathology.
In addition, symptomatic treatment is performed. For example, with a tendency to thrombosis, blood thinners are prescribed, and with phlebitis - anti-inflammatory drugs.
But all treatment should be comprehensive. If a patient ponders how to remove the veins in his legs without surgery, but at the same time not quit smoking and eating spicy food, then he will be disappointed - this is impossible. Without changing his lifestyle and diet, he will need leg vein surgery soon.
If you can't do without surgical intervention
If conservative therapy has been unsuccessful and the patient has frequent pains and leg cramps, trophic ulcers develop or phlebitis often occurs, then an operation must be performed to reduce the consequences of the disease.
But vein surgery can also be performed using minimally invasive methods of treatment:
- laser correction:
- sclerosing effect;
- laser ablation;
- radiofrequency ablation;
- ligation;
- minor phlebectomy.
Laser Correction
It is carried out at the initial stage of the disease, when only small vessels are deformed and spider veins appear on the skin. Percutaneous exposure to a laser pulse contributes to the collapse of the walls of small wreaths and closure of the lumen. But only the initial stages of the disease can be cured with laser correction. For this, several sessions are sufficient. Rehabilitation after laser surgery is not required.
Sclerosing effect
A sclerosant, a special solution that causes a loss of elasticity of the vascular wall, is injected into the lumen of a deformed vein unable to perform its function. This method can be used for both large and small vessels. But with a large venous lesion, although blood circulation in the limbs will improve, the cosmetic defect may persist.
Laser ablation
A sterile catheter is inserted into the dilated section of the vein and an electrode is inserted through it. Laser action is carried out on the inner surface of the vessel, causing the collapse of its walls and complete closure of the lumen. The blood flow begins to occur through the smaller vessels, and the vein exposed to laser radiation gradually becomes thinner and disappears.
The postoperative period with such an intervention can last up to a day, but complete elimination of cosmetic defects will occur only after a few months.
Radiofrequency ablation
The method is similar to the laser method, but it uses radio frequency radiation. Radiofrequency ablation is performed on large great vessels and the approximate length of exposure to radiation: from groin to knee or from knee to foot. The therapeutic effect is achieved in 2-3 sessions, but the complete disappearance of the deformed vein will occur in a few weeks.
Ligation
The imposition of a ligature (dressing) on both sides on the site of the great vessel allows it to be turned off from the blood flow system, which will begin to bypass the smaller veins. Places of overlap of the ligature fall off and firmly grow together. Ligation is performed on an outpatient basis under local anesthesia: small incisions are made in the skin and venous ligation is performed. Ligation is considered a good method for getting rid of varicose veins when there are already negative consequences associated with impaired blood flow. "Turning off" the pathologically deformed venous site from the circulation helps to reduce pain and edema.
Minor phlebectomy
This surgery is also performed on an outpatient basis under local anesthesia. The difference from ligation is that after ligation, the altered venous areas are excised and removed through small incisions in the skin. Compared to surgical phlebectomy (in which the vein is removed completely), such a mini-operation is considered less traumatic and requires almost no rehabilitation.
Although minimally invasive methods of treatment are considered surgical intervention due to the mechanical effect on the vessels, after surgery on the veins of the legs using the above methods, the negative consequences of the intervention for the patient are minimal and rehabilitation after the operation takes place in a short time.
It is possible to remove varicose enlargements on the legs without surgery, but the success of the treatment depends not only on the chosen method, but also on how much the patient is ready to follow medical recommendations.