Treatment of Varicose veins

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If your varicose veins are not causing you any trouble you probably donâ€™t need any treatment. If they are painful, sore or bleeding, if you have ulcers or if they affect your daily activities or your sleep, your GP may suggest treatment. Treatment options depend on your general health and how severe your varicose veins are.

Support stockings - compression stockings help to support the surface veins. They come in different strengths and are tighter at the bottom than the top. You should put them on when you get up in the morning. To avoid getting any skin conditions related to varicose veins, keep your legs well moisturized, but avoid perfumed moisturisers.

Leg elevation (raising your leg up higher than your chest) at frequent intervals will improve blood flow, get more oxygen into the blood and help prevent waste products building up and causing pain. It helps to re-direct blood from the surface veins into the deep veins, and stops blood from flowing back out to the surface veins.

Injection sclerotherapy is a surgical treatment in which the veins are injected with a chemical that closes them completely. This technique is most effective on smaller varicose veins that have not yet formed properly. Injections of chemicals into the veins can improve their appearance but the legs may still ache. It may not be successful long term; the varicose veins may come back after a while. You will need to wear pressure bandages for 3-6 weeks after you have the injections.

Ligation and stripping (which means tying and pulling out) is a technique used to remove the surface veins either partly or altogether. This can only be done if the deep veins are working properly because the deep leg veins will take over from the vein that was removed. It is done under a general anaesthetic and you will have an incision (cut) in your groin and many small incisions lower down your leg. This operation usually has very good results and surgery can be more effective than other methods in the long term. You will probably need to stay in hospital for a few days. You may want need to take painkillers after the operation and you will need to support the legs with support bandages and leg elevation.

Thinner veins can be removed with laser or heat treatment (thermal ablation).

Some people use complementary therapies such as horse chestnut for their varicose veins.