New Varicose and Spider Vein Treatments

July 19, 2004 -- Sandra Horn literally lived on the beach every summer until a fairly benign medical problem left her too embarrassed. Now, new treatments are making it easier to treat the unsightly problem she faced quickly and with little pain.

Horn suffers from venous disease, a condition that results in spider veins and varicose veins, and she's not alone. According to The Vascular Disease Foundation,more than 25 million Americans have venous disease, and up until recently they've had to suffer in silence.

New treatments are making it easier to treat the unsightly problem quickly and with little pain.

Horn underwent a procedure called the venous closure to get rid of her varicose veins.

Dr. Mark Adelman, the Director of Vascular Surgery at the Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City, says the procedure is a minimally invasive treatment and a good option for treating varicose veins.

Closure, which can cost between $1,000 and $3,000, is performed as an outpatient procedure. The doctor inserts a thin catheter into the vein through a small opening and the catheter delivers radiofrequency (RF) energy to the vein wall, causing it to heat, collapse, and seal shut.

Once the diseased vein is closed, other healthy veins take over and empty blood from your legs. Horn says she's overjoyed with the results she has seen.

"Now I'm out in my bathing suit and I'm out in my shorts and it's great," Horn said.

Varicose veins are enlargements of the veins that sit beneath the skin. When valves in the vein go bad and don't hold the blood up towards the heart, the vein becomes enlarged and disfigured, causing pain and swelling.

Spider veins lie within the skin and can be quite unsightly but typically cause no long-term health implications.

Lynne Pagano has suffered from spider veins, which surfaced during her pregnancies.

"It looked like I had massive bruises all over my legs, and people would ask 'What happened to you?' As though I'd fallen down or been in an accident," Pagano said.