Endovenous laser and Segmental Radiofrequency
The treatment of insufficient saphenous trunks can also be performed using the endovenous laser technique, and like other procedures such as radiofrequency or Venaseal, it has been a revolution in the treatment of varicose veins in recent years.
ENDOVENOUS LASER
Doctors Boné and Navarro (Spain) described the technique many years ago, which later spread worldwide, and is currently used routinely. It is also an endovenous technique, without open surgery, and is performed under local anesthesia or sedation, without spinal, epidural or general anesthesia.
It allows the majority of patients with varicose veins to be treated in this way, regardless of their caliber, even when there are complications such as ulcers.
The technique is performed by means of an ultrasound-guided puncture or a mini-incision through which a laser fiber is inserted inside the compromised saphenous trunk along the entire length of its affected segment. Once the fiber is in place, occlusion is performed by laser thermal discharge, which will lead to a subsequent process of fibrosis, resorption, and disappearance of the affected trunk.
The treatment of collateral varicose veins is complemented in the same surgical time, with a phlebectomy by microincisions or with foam sclerosis depending on the type of varicose vein, always looking for the best combination between clinical and aesthetic results.
Phlebectomy consists of extracting varicose veins using special fine instruments so that varicose veins are removed regardless of their size, without the need for stitches and subsequently leaving small, almost invisible scars over time. In the photo: medium and large caliber subdermal varicose veins due to insufficiency of the great saphenous vein. Treatment with Laser EV.
The Endolaser technique is approved by the FDA - Food and Drugs Administration - (organism that controls everything related to health in the US), to be performed in the office and on an outpatient basis. In our country we always do it in the operating room and supported by a specialist in Anesthesiology and Resuscitation, with all the guarantees; mainly because we combine the treatment with the stepped resection of varicose epifasciales.
Its advantages include its strictly ambulatory nature (that is, once the intervention is finished, the patient returns home, being able to walk from that moment on), the fact that it does not require general and/or spinal anesthesia, the usually minor postoperative discomfort and, above all, everything, that according to current studies show, this type of intervention predisposes less to some types of recurrence (reappearance of varicose veins) in relation to classic or open surgery (stripping or tearing of the vein).
Current studies show that at 10-year follow-up there is less recurrence (that is, less recurrence of varicose veins) in patients treated with Endolaser or radiofrequency than in those treated with the classical stripping technique.
