What are the treatment options for Varicose Veins?

So, we tend to, when we talk about treatment, we tend to think of conservative options and surgical options. So, conservative options are things like improving, increasing exercise, weight loss, if that could be a contributing factor to the varicose veins, as well as wearing compression in essence because these veins are very close to the skin, putting a compression stocking on is meant to collapse those superficial veins and force blood down veins more in the deep system that are working and draining the leg in effect reducing those symptoms. The surgical options include a variety of technologies where the main goal here is to surgically close off that vein. Radiofrequency ablation uses heat. A catheter is placed in the lumen inside the vein, the affected vein, and it applies heat throughout that vein to close that vein off which then forces blood in a different direction down a different vein. Glue is another modality. Laser provides a similar type of effect and then foam sclerotherapy is a sclerosant injection into the vein that with compression it allows the closure of that vein by disturbing the endothelium inside the vein wall. And then there is an open surgical option. The options that I mentioned before are non-invasive or minimally invasive and then there's open surgery which involves ligation of the vein or stripping of the vein entirely away. In addition there are other adjunct treatments to varicose veins where we treat the main affecting vein that isn't working appropriately but there may be branches of that vein perforators that require avulsions where small stab incisions are made in the skin and those varicose veins are pulled out so that the remainder is closed off and there's no flow in those veins.