Winter isn’t quite over, but summer will be here before you know it, and it will be time to stop hiding your legs. If you’re dealing with varicose veins, that sentence may have made you flinch. Perhaps just the thought of warm weather makes you shudder for fear of showing those twisted, swollen veins.
Well, news flash: You can feel confident in summer clothes with the help of a 30-minute, in-office radiofrequency ablation procedure at XBody Health & Wellness in Wayne, New Jersey. First, let us give you some background information about varicose veins.
What are varicose veins?
Varicose veins appear when your blood vessel valves malfunction. Your veins carry blood back to your heart after it has been ushered throughout your body. This blood is devoid of oxygen and nutrients, so it heads back to the heart and the lungs to get refortified.
All veins have one-way valves that prevent this deoxygenated blood from flowing backward, but those valves can become damaged or weak, leading to clogged veins.
To send blood from your legs to your heart, your veins must work against gravity. If those one-way valves don’t work, gravity wins, and blood starts to pool in the veins of your lower extremities. The excess blood causes your veins to bulge and twist, which leads to the familiar appearance of varicose veins.
Varicose veins usually don’t require medical intervention, although they can cause discomfort and have been linked to blood clots. Even if your varicose veins are harmless, you may wish to remove them for cosmetic reasons. That’s where radiofrequency ablation comes in.
What is radiofrequency ablation?
Radiofrequency ablation to treat varicose veins is an intravenous procedure that involves cauterizing — or burning — your damaged veins. At XBody Health & Wellness, we give you a local anesthetic to numb the treatment area.
Then, using guidance from an ultrasound image, we insert a catheter into your varicose vein, where it releases controlled radiofrequency energy.
This energy heats your varicose vein and prevents blood from flowing into it. Blood flow diverts to nearby veins, while your varicose vein shrinks, eventually being absorbed and eliminated by your body.
Why radiofrequency ablation?
If you’ve done any searching for varicose vein treatments, you probably already know that the options are far from few. There’s sclerotherapy, foam sclerotherapy, thermocoagulation, compression hose therapy, and more. But radiofrequency ablation prevails as one of the least invasive, most successful options.
Radiofrequency ablation also leaves virtually no scars, meaning that you certainly get what you’re after smooth legs.
To learn more about radiofrequency ablation for varicose veins, schedule an appointment with us at XBody Health & Wellness today. Call our Wayne, New Jersey, location or book your appointment using our online scheduling tool.
