Will Your Varicose Veins Return After Treatment?
If you’re worried about the risk of varicose vein recurrence, know that you can take steps to reduce those odds.
Although current minimally invasive procedures have proven successful in eliminating painful and unsightly varicose veins, it’s not unheard of for patients to experience a recurrence after treatment. However, if fear of recurrence has been holding you back from seeking treatment, it shouldn’t any longer.
First of all, your quality of life will vastly improve after treatment. Once you experience life without the itching, aching sensations of varicose veins, you’ll wonder why you waited so long. What’s more, you can take actionable steps to reduce the likelihood that your varicose veins return. Here’s how.
Preventing the Return of Varicose Veins
Having a recurrence of varicose veins can be distressing, but there’s usually a clear reason why these veins return. Take care to avoid these potential risk factors, and your risk of recurrence vastly reduces.
1. Your Initial Treatment Didn’t Get all the Varicose Veins.
To treat as many varicose veins as possible, a vein specialist will conduct a duplex ultrasound exam to isolate the veins where blood has backed up due to weak valves. When those vein valves lose elasticity, the volume of blood in the vein grows to the point where the vein pushes against the skin and a varicose vein appears.
It’s possible that a single treatment for one or two varicose veins won’t eliminate all the clogged and malfunctioning veins, particularly if you have varicose veins that aren’t visible. That’s why the Center for Vein Restoration creates personalized treatment plans and follow-up schedules for each one of our patients; we want to ensure low recurrence rates, and that requires building a treatment plan just for you.
2. You Didn’t Follow the Necessary Post-Treatment Protocol.
Ensuring that your veins heal properly and stay away after treatment requires strict adherence to your recovery protocol. After your treatment, your Center for Vein Restoration doctor will explain how to care for your healing legs by resting, wearing compression stockings, eating healthy, maintaining light activity, and more.
Typically, our post-treatment procedure also involves scheduling follow-up appointments to check the legs’ progress. It’s at these follow-up appointments that our doctors will determine whether or not you need a second round of treatment to eliminate your risk of varicose vein recurrence.
3. Your Health Status Has Changed.
In the years after your initial varicose vein treatment, your body and health status can change, which can contribute to the development of new varicose veins. Have you gained weight? Those extra pounds strain the veins and can lead to varicose veins. Pregnancy and menopause also alter a woman’s hormonal makeup, which has been associated with a higher incidence of varicose veins.
After treatment, your vein care provider will suggest lifestyle changes such as maintaining a healthy weight and wearing compression stocking regularly. Abiding by these recommendations can help ensure long-lasting results.
4. Your Provider Used an Outdated Treatment Method.
Older methods of varicose vein treatment, such as litigation and vein stripping, are now known to be associated with increased chances of varicose vein recurrence. For this reason, Center for Vein Restoration physicians specialize in more modern methods of treatment. In particular, our physicians focus on treatments known to have high success levels and low recurrence levels, like Laser Ablation and VenaSeal. Studies have shown these treatment methods to be more effective and longer-lasting than their predecessors.
5. You Have Venous Insufficiency.
Venous insufficiency, the condition that’s responsible for a high percentage of varicose vein cases, is a chronic condition and can affect other veins overtime. As a result, if venous insufficiency is responsible for your varicose veins, it’s possible that they could return again after treatment. To reduce this risk — and reduce your other health risks associated with venous insufficiency — it's important to get screened and treated early and often, as varicose veins can develop into late-stage vein disease and contribute to lymphedema, DVT, and more.
Working with a vein specialist who can properly diagnose what’s causing your varicose veins and recommend the right treatments greatly lowers the risk of a recurrence. A Center for Vein Restoration specialist will also develop a holistic treatment plan to not only eliminate varicose veins with surgical treatments, but provide you with self-care measures to keep varicose veins from cropping up again, as well.
Don’t Keep Living with Varicose Veins
The specialists at the Center for Vein Restoration can thoroughly diagnose your condition and propose treatments to reduce the chance of varicose veins returning. We understand that every patient is unique and has different needs, and we provide individualized treatment based on your preferences and health status. Contact us today to learn more by making an appointment.