Treating Your Varicose Veins

Cache Valley Surgical Consultants, led by Dr. Scott Grover, can help you manage your varicose veins to ensure you get the results you need.  Here's what you need to know about this treatment process and the various approaches we'll use to help you.

First Office Visit

For your first office visit, you will sit down with Dr. Grover and review your medical history and specifically your vein history and problems.  Dr. Grover then spends a significant amount of time assuring that you understand how the veins are supposed to function and how the symptoms you have are related to vein problems.   You will also discuss the different treatment modalities and the risks and benefits of each one.  The most important of these is that insurance companies require 3 months (90 days) of conservative treatment before they will pay for treatments.  Conservative treatments include compression, mild exercise like walking, elevation, and use of NSAIDs - like Ibuprofen, for your symptoms.

Diagnosis Before Treatment

Your next office visit will be diagnosing your vein issues using various tests. This can mostly be accomplished with a venous Doppler ultrasound that painlessly looks at your blood flow in each of the veins.  After we're done, we'll discuss treatment options to find a solution that works for you, starting with conservative options first if you have not already completed that trial period. 

Self-Care: The First Step

Typically, we start your recovery by getting you to take better care of your legs. For example, regular exercise, compression stockings, and elevating the legs can help quite a bit.  If it doesn't do everything you need, we'll move on to prescribing a specific type of compression stocking or Surgical treatment.

Compression Stockings: A Great Option 

If self-care doesn't do everything to relieve your issues, we can prescribe unique compression stockings that you'll wear all day to compress veins and help keep your blood from pooling in your legs.  Depending on your insurance, they may cover these stockings.  They can cost over $100 so it is less stressful for you if they will pay for them.  

Sclerotherapy: Conservative Surgery 

At Cache Valley Surgical Consultants, Dr. Grover knows that compression stockings doesn't always get rid of vein issues.  Instead, you might need this treatment, which uses a solution or foam that scars and closes these veins to help close down and fade.  This works very well with the smaller spider veins but insurance companies consider it cosmetic and will not pay for this treatment. They will pay for it when we inject the sclerosing solution into varicose veins that do not resolve with the other treatments. 

Endovenous Catheter Therapy:  For Larger Veins 

Are you suffering from very large veins that simply won't fade away?  Or are your issues with the main superficial veins? This treatment uses radiofrequency or laser energy fed through a catheter directly into the vein wall.  Dr. Grover prefers the Radiofrequency (RF) treatments as it is more controllable during the treatment.   It is completed through an IV catheter so there is minimal scarring.  The result should be a closing of the bad (incompetent) vein and an eventual disappearance that resolves vein related your issues.  This treatment often helps resolve other veins that are fed from this problem vein - such as varicose veins.

Ambulatory Phlebectomy:  One Possible Last Step 

In rare cases, we might use small incisions to remove veins physically.  This outpatient procedure is the most invasive but is still pretty easy for most people to tolerate.  You should experience only minor discomfort and little to no scarring once it's over.   We have found through years of experience that the veins we used to remove this way will commonly resolve with the treatments above so we do not do this procedure often.  

Our Team is Ready to Help You

At Cache Valley Surgical Consultants, Dr. Grover can treat your varicose veins and ensure that you get the support that you deserve.  Call us at (435) 752-7122 to learn more about our therapy options, and we'll do all we can to ensure you're satisfied with your treatment.