If you have followed through the arguments through the "How Veins Work" section, you will now understand the basic problem underlying varicose veins and related problems (such as phlebitis, venous eczema, lipodermatosclerosis, venous bleeds, venous ulcers etc) is the no functioning of the valves in certain veins (see www.legulcers.co.uk for further understanding of how valve failure causes the tissue damage).

Therefore to fix the problem, we need to fix the valves and the effects of the blood refluxing (falling the wrong way) when the valves stop working.

Unfortunately, despite years of research, no-one has managed to identify a way to repair the valves effectively that lasts, or to make an artificial valve that works in the long term.

Thus if we can't fix the valves, we need to do the next best thing - stop the blood refluxing.

Diagram showing how valve failure in the GSV (Great Saphenous Vein) causes varicose veins Firstly, we need to make sure that we only treat the veins which have faulty valves and leave any veins that are working properly alone. Therefore we use our duplex ultrasound to identify the pattern of disease.

This shows us which of the veins aren't working and what size and shape they are. By knowing these facts we can choose the optimal treatment options for each person.

The rest of this section is going to go through many of the new treatments that we have used or assessed at The Whiteley Clinic. There are several other methods that we have tried or that are available. However, I have only included those options that need special mention.

To aid understanding, I have included a set of diagrams starting with the basic anatomy and pathophysiology (what goes wrong) on this page, and then the other pages will follow on the series.

Finally there are many other Whiteley Clinic websites that look in more detail at certain of these conditions or techniques. Many will be linked from these pages - others can be found through our main site - www.TheWhiteleyClinic.co.uk.