Venous disease treatments

If you’ve been diagnosed with a venous disease, our vascular specialists We’ll work with you to determine the best treatment option for you. They’re experts in venous disease treatments to treat vein disease, using minimally invasive procedures, vascular surgery and medication.

What is venous disease?

Think of your veins as tiny, hollow tubes with valves that allow blood to flow toward your heart. Venous diseases, or problems in your veins that damage the valves – such as varicose veins or deep vein thrombosis (DVT) – can cause blood to build up in areas of your body or even cause it to flow backwards. This can lead to dangerous blood clots and other vein-related conditions.

Types of vein conditions

As experts in vascular medicine and surgery, we’re here to help you get better from common vein conditions including:

• Chronic venous insufficiency: This causes blood to pool in your legs instead of moving toward your heart.
• Deep vein thrombosis: This happens when a blood clot forms in one or more of your deep veins, often in your lower leg, thigh or pelvis.
• Excessive blood clotting: This condition can be genetic or caused by other health conditions.
• Superficial venous thrombosis (phlebitis): This occurs when veins close to the surface skin of your arms or legs become inflamed.
• Varicose and spider veins: These are veins that are weak or stretched and may begin to hold extra blood.

Types of treatment

At Aurora, we have decades of experience treating vascular conditions including venous diseases. Whenever possible, we’ll use nonsurgical treatments for vein disease.

We’ll talk with you about the best treatment option to improve the health of your veins and decrease your chance of other medical complications.

Venous disease treatment options include:

• Medication: We may prescribe medications such as anticoagulants to help prevent blood clots in your veins. Our anticoagulation clinics can help you safely and successfully manage your anticoagulation therapy and lower your risk of complications.
• Catheter-directed thrombolysis: In this procedure, we use a thin catheter to direct medication into a blood clot to dissolve it.
• Vena cava filter placement: In this procedure, we insert a metal filter into an abdominal vein to help prevent blood clots in the legs from traveling to your lungs or heart.
• Angioplasty: We use a catheter to insert a small balloon to open blockages in your leg, arm or kidney artery.
• Sclerotherapy: We insert a solution (often salt-water based) into varicose or spider veins that causes them to collapse and eventually disappear.
• Endovenous thermal ablation treatment: We use radio waves or lasers to seal varicose veins and cause them to disappear.

If you have a more serious vein-related condition, we may recommend vascular surgery including:

• Bypass surgery: A surgeon reroutes blood flow around a blocked vein.
• Vein ligation and stripping: These procedures treat severe cases of varicose veins by surgically tying off and removing the vein.
• Subfascial endoscopic perforator surgery: This minimally invasive surgery can help treat ulcers on perforator veins.
• Valve repair surgery: Your doctor inserts stitches or a special ring to tighten and return a damaged valve into its previous shape.