Foam Sclerotherapy Varicose Vein Treatment

Dr Omar Abu Bakr is a Consultant Venous Surgeon and Phlebologist (varicose veins treatment) with over 13 years experience in varicose veins treatment and foam sclerotherapy treatment. You can book a consultation with Dr Omar at his surgery in Marleybone, London, or at his surgery in Stirling House, Guildford. After your initial consultation with Dr Bakr, you will be able to talk through the available varicose vein treatments available that are the most suitable ones for your individual diagnosis. At this appointment, you can feel free to ask as many questions as you want so you can fully understand how your treatment will work, what’s involved, what it will feel like, and how long it will take to see positive results. You don’t need to worry that after your treatment you will be left on your own. Dr Omar provides excellent aftercare services with a follow-up consultation to review the effectiveness of your treatment and further advice going forward.

Varicose vein treatments

Depending on your consultation results, Dr Omar will recommend one of the following treatments, or a combination of these treatments to achieve the best results:

• High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU)
• Endovenous Microwave Ablation of the veins (EMWA)
• Endovenous Laser Ablation of the veins (EVLA)
• Transluminal Occlusion Of the Perforators (TRLOP)
• Micro-phlebectomy
• Ultrasound-Guided Foam Sclerotherapy and microsclerotherapy

For this article, we will focus on one of the most effective varicose vein treatments currently available: Ultrasound-Guided Foam Sclerotherapy. Ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy is the preferred treatment for treating small varicose veins. This treatment is usually given to a patient as a stage 2 therapy after treating the main root of the case of your varicose veins. In most cases, patients will have their larger, most protruding varicose veins treated first, followed by foam sclerotherapy treatment to close off and get rid of the remaining varicose veins.

What is foam sclerotherapy?

The ‘foam’ part of foam sclerotherapy treatment involves creating a harmless foam that is injected into the varicose vein using ultrasound imaging to guide the injection to the right position. The foam is made by combining the sclerosant agent (a medicine that kills the vein) with Oxygen and Carbon-Dioxide, which is then injected into the varicose vein. The foam mixture is a safe and effective treatment because the bubbles in the foam dissolve quickly and help your body to break down and absorb the vein.

How foam sclerotherapy works

After the larger varicose veins are treated, they will no longer be able to supply smaller varicose veins with blood. Using foam sclerotherapy to destroy the unwanted vein works well with your own biological processes. The foam will cause the cells in the walls of the vein to die off. This causes inflammation in the area to which your body responds by breaking down and reabsorbing the dead vein over time until it disappears. Whenever any type of medicine is injected into a vein, the solution will be immediately diluted down by the blood, which will reduce its efficacy. However, injecting the foam into a varicose vein will push the pooled blood out of the way to completely fill up the vein. This means that the foam is not diluted by the blood and can get to work right away destroying the cell walls of the varicose vein. There is no need to worry that the foam will move outside of the varicose vein being treated because should any of the foam solution reach large, active veins, it will mix with the blood and become inactive.

Minimally invasive treatment

The treatment is minimally invasive, which means for the patient it is much more comfortable to undertake and quicker to recover from than old-fashioned varicose vein treatments such as vein stripping, which is a full-scale surgical procedure with a long recovery time and extremely high recurrence rate. Patients undergoing foam sclerotherapy can avoid the need for general anaesthetic, open incisions into the legs and the need for a hospital operating theatre to undertake treatment. This newer treatment has fast become the go-to choice for achieving long term cure for varicose veins. Even the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends the use of treatments such as foam sclerotherapy over traditional surgery because of its minimally invasive technique and a better outcome for the patient.

Receiving foam sclerotherapy treatment

Dr Omar takes every effort to ensure the comfort and peace of mind of his patients, so your treatment will be conducted in a comfortable treatment room and not in a clinical operating theatre. You will be able to rest on a comfortable treatment bed and will be conscious all the way through your treatment. No anaesthetic or sedation will be needed! In most cases, treatments go quickly and smoothly and you can be up and walking around normally immediately after the treatment with very minimal discomfort if any at all. The first step in the successful treatment of your varicose veins is to book a consultation with Dr Omar where you will be able to ask as many questions as you like and have a personalised treatment plan drawn up for you. Contact us today to find out more about our treatments and to discuss your condition. Our friendly team are here to help!