A medical adhesive is now being used to treat varicose veins in what doctors call a walk-in and walk-out procedure for patients.
On Saturday, 40-year-old Thanigavelu, an electrical supervisor from Puducherry, who was suffering from varicose veins for the last few years, underwent a minimally-invasive procedure using “VenaSeal” closure system at Apollo Hospitals.
V. Balaji, senior consultant-Vascular Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, said traditionally, surgical stripping was the available option for patients with this ailment. The vein was removed under general anaesthesia and it took two weeks to a month for the patient to fully recover. Thermal ablation came next, in which laser or radio frequency was used to treat and seal the varicose veins in a minimally-invasive procedure. However, this involved multiple injections of local anaesthesia.
Conventional issues
“We now have a new technology to treat varicose veins. But a lot of people do not approach doctors for treatment as they think that the procedure is painful, complicated and has side effects,” he told reporters on Saturday. In this, a catheter is passed through a small hole into the diseased vein and the adhesive is injected to seal it. “This has been time-tested in the U.S. and Europe,” he added. Being introduced in India, the procedure is performed in an hour and would enable quicker recovery for patients, he said.
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