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The Veins Website
Welcome to the Veins Website - a site dedicated to the understanding
of varicose veins, underlying causes of varicose veins and the best
treatments available for varicose veins.
In particular, this site explains the new
"keyhole" surgery for varicose veins that was introduced to the UK in
March 1999 by Mr Mark Whiteley (see
www.Pioneering-veins-surgery.co.uk).
Mr Whiteley started off by being the
first in the UK to use VNUS Closure®. He and his team have now continued
developing their techniques, inventing and developing new procedures and
staying at the forefront of vein surgery.
This website is dedicated to helping you
understand how veins work and how they can go wrong.
At The Whiteley Clinic we
believe the quote by Abraham Maslow:
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you
will see every problem as a nail”
In the new world of walk-in
walk-out vein surgery (also called minimally invasive vein surgery,
pinhole vein surgery or keyhole vein surgery) this is shown to be very
true.
Many doctors, hospitals or
clinics have decided to go for one technique - such as VNUS Closure®
FAST™,
EVLA (or EVLT®)
or Foam Sclerotherapy. However, although these are excellent techniques
for some patients and some veins, if one wants to get the best treatment
and have the tools to treat every vein, it is clear that a vein clinic
needs ready access to:
-
EVLA (Endovenous laser
Ablation)
-
TRLOP closure of
perforators (using VNUS RFS®
or Celon RFITT®)
-
Ultrasound guided foam
sclerotherapy - preferably using oxygen and carbondioxide and NOT air
-
Ambulatory phlebectomy
-
Coil or gelfoam
embolisation of Pelvic veins by Interventional radiology
-
Microsclerotherapy for
thread veins
Other techniques that are
good to have but are not essential are:
No patient now needs general
anaesthetic for vein surgery unless they wish to have it for personal
choice. As the new procedures have all been designed for local anaesthetic
walk-in walk-out use, they work best under local anaesthesia. Indeed as
patients can tell if the surgeon is near a nerve when they are awake,
local anaesthesia walk-in walk-out surgery reduces the risks of nerve
damage and DVT, as well as getting rid of the risks and expense of general
anaesthesia.
More information about the advantages of Local Anaesthetic Veins Surgery
can be found on
www.Local-Anaesthetic-Vein-Treatment.co.uk.
Finally we stopped stripping veins many years ago as it had become clear
that stripping led to veins growing back in a large number of patients -
unlike the new procedures that prevent this from happening. We won a prize
for this work and it was published in the British Journal of Surgery in
July 2007 (see
www.veinstripping.co.uk).
Since that time, no vein expert should
recommend stripping of the veins - and no patient should consent to having
their veins stripped unless they are really convinced that the risks of
pain, larger scars and the risk of their vein growing back again, is their
best option. |
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