Don’t i need those veins?

There are many ways to treat varicose veins. But they are all base on the premise that the distended vein is bad and should be removed completely or closed up. The former is achieved by surgically stripping the vein off whereas the later is done either by laser or injection sclerotherapy.

So it is natural that most patients, when confronted with the advice of varicose vein treatment, will asked ‘don’t I need that vein?’

A vein will become varicose or dilated when the valves along the veins are defective and are not closing properly. This will mean that flow of blood in that vein will be downward instead of upwards to the heart. This will result in pooling of blood in the leg leading to swollen veins.

We have a lot of veins in our legs. When one vein is varicose and defective, blood gets redirected and flow though the good veins. So closing or removing the diseased vein does not impair the ability of our leg veins to transfer blood to the heart. Conversely, by closing the varicosed vein we stopped the downward leak of blood thus reduces pooling of blood in the leg.

It is a medical paradox of sort. After the treatment, you are one vein short but your circulation actually become better.