Your legs take you everywhere — on a jog, shopping with friends, or on a dinner date. With recent advancements in treatment for venous diseases, there's no need to let the effects of painful varicose veins keep you from enjoying the people and activities you love.
Varicose veins affect approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population (70 percent of that being female and 30 percent male). They are the blue, ropey veins that have become enlarged and lost their ability to effectively transport blood back to the heart. Failure of these veins causes the blood to flow backwards toward the feet and pool in the unhealthy vein. If left untreated, severe varicose veins can pose serious health risks. In recent years, advances in the vein industry have surpassed the primitive and painful vein stripping procedures and replaced them with minimally invasive laser treatments.
The top five reasons why the CoolTouch CTEV Laser System is the newest, most comfortable laser technology for getting rid of varicose veins are:
1. Simple, in-office procedure
The CoolTouch CTEV Endovenous Laser Ablation (EVLA) procedure is minimally invasive and performed right in your doctor’s office. Only local anesthesia is necessary and the entire procedure takes less than one hour per leg treated.
2. Less heat and less pain
The 1320-nm wavelength requires less heat to close the vein than diode lasers, which have an 810, 940 or 980 wavelength. The high heat generated by diode lasers can actually rupture the vein causing significant pain, swelling and bruising.
3. Great cosmetic results
Perhaps the best benefit of the CoolTouch varicose vein treatment is that patients do not experience bruising or incision scars, which are so small that stitches are not necessary.
4. Rapid relief from symptoms
Your symptoms will begin to improve immediately after the procedure is completed. However, depending on their severity, some symptoms may take 1-2 weeks to completely disappear. Laser therapy for varicose veins has a 98 percent success rate.
5. Minimal downtime
After the procedure, your leg will be wrapped in a compression bandage and you will be up and walking within 30 minutes. Routine activity can resume the same day and athletic or strenuous activities within several days.
By Dr. Mark Schwartz
Reviewed February 10, 2017
