VEINS TO GAIN FROM LESS PAINFUL TREATMENT

The Professor for Dermatology at Hungary’s University of Pecs, and a teaching
member in Mainz University’s medical faculty in Germany, unveiled findings
which will give confidence to surgeons and people seeking treatment.

Dr Proesbstle, a specialist in efficient, minimally-invasive procedures for troublesome veins, said the results of a recently published, prospective multicentre trial, involving the VNUS ClosureFast catheter (Covidien) method, is impressive.

The three-year “follow-up” results from patients treated this way at eight
European centres, prove that this method is efficient and offers people an improvement in their quality of life, he said.  

Dr Proesbstle revealed that the trial involved treatment of 295 greater saphenous veins from 225 patients, over the age of 50. Just over 73 per cent were women.

The study revealed that 41.1 per cent of limbs were pain-free (at baseline).
After two years, 99.3 per cent of people treated reported “no pain”, and between 12-months and two years, 96.4 per cent treated also said they were pain-free.

The VNUS procedure allows doctors to close diseased veins by inserting a
catheter into a vein, heating the vein wall, causing collagen to shrink and the
vein to close. Blood is naturally re-routed to healthy veins, in a procedure which takes less than 30 minutes.

The well-known speaker has explored the use of the VNUS ClosureFast
catheter against other current technologies, such a laser, foam sclerotherapy
and the “new kid on the block” superheated steam.

Dr Proesbstle said people who took part in the trial were treated in an outpatients’ setting, using local anaesthetic. Each received two cycles of heat treatment –
immediately below the saphenofemoral junction – and one treatment cycle afterwards. Combined procedures were allowed only at calf level.

“We now have solid data to support the statement that the days of cross
Iigation and stripping are over.  We have such high success rates, good durability
of results and a gain in quality of life from pre-procedure impairment – compared
with  traditional surgery – that we need to shift to endovenous approaches of
treatment,” he said.

One of the benefits of this type of treatment is that it is also cost-effective,
because it does not need to be carried out in a theatre or hospital.

“It can be performed in a modern office with excellent medical facilities, in an
outpatient setting,” said Dr Proebstle.

“The initial ablation success rate with VNUS ClosureFast is 100 per cent. Only two per cent of limbs showed axial reflux 36 months after the procedure and, as such, radiofrequency segmental thermal ablation shows a high efficacy, coupled with a very moderate side-effect profile,” added Dr Proesbstle.

For more information, visit http://www.vnus.co.uk/vascular-disease/varicose-veins/treatments-of-varicose-veins.aspx