5 Signs of Peripheral Vascular Disease
Did you know that nearly half of Americans have cardiovascular disease? Here, we explore one of the more common issues that involves the vascular side of the equation — peripheral vascular disease.
Your circulatory system is a vast network of veins, arteries, and lymphatic vessels that moves blood, oxygen, and nutrients throughout your body. Veins are specifically tasked with carrying deoxygenated blood from your body back to your heart and lungs, where it’s reoxygenated.
Vein problems fall into two categories: blockages (blood clots), and inadequate venous flow (insufficiency). Varicose veins are an example of the latter vessel problem.
In the United States, about 33 million adults between the ages of 40 and 80 have varicose veins. While not usually serious, the condition can lead to bulging, enlarged surface veins that are twisted, uncomfortable, and unpleasant to look at.
Fortunately, there are several treatment solutions for varicose veins. Here at Upper East Side Cardiology in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, our varicose vein expert Satjit Bhusri, MD, FACC offers a complete menu of varicose vein treatments.
Here, he discusses VenaSeal™, one of the safest, simplest, and most effective ways to get rid of unwanted varicose veins. Here’s how this quick in-office procedure can help you.
Varicose veins can develop anywhere in the body, but they affect leg veins most often. This is because the veins in your legs must work against gravity to keep deoxygenated blood flowing back toward your heart.
To carry blood from your legs back to your heart efficiently, your veins contain a series of one-way valves. When these valves become weak or damaged, blood can pool up behind them, causing pressure on vein walls that makes them bulge, swell, and distend, or become varicose.
Several risk factors can increase your chances of developing varicose veins, including older age, gender (women are more likely to develop them than men), pregnancy, obesity, family history, smoking, and a sedentary lifestyle.
The VenaSeal Closure System targets the affected vein with a specially formulated injectable adhesive designed to seal the damaged vein, forcing your blood flow to reroute into healthy veins. This quick and simple in-office procedure can effectively collapse an unwanted varicose vein and erase it from the surface of your skin.
To start, Dr. Bhusri numbs the treatment area with a local anesthetic. Then, he makes a small incision and inserts a catheter into the affected vein. You might feel some minor pressure as it’s inserted.
Next, he sends a small amount of medical adhesive through the catheter and into the vein. Once the specialized adhesive is in place, he applies light pressure to the area to push the vein walls together and help them adhere fully.
After the adhesion process is finished, he removes the catheter and covers the insertion site with a bandage. In the weeks following your procedure, you can expect your collapsed vein to slowly fade away as it’s absorbed by your body.
If you’re prone to developing varicose veins, Dr. Bhusri may also recommend certain lifestyle changes to help you reduce your risk of getting more in the future. To minimize the chances of varicose vein recurrence, you can:
If you’re dealing with unpleasant varicose veins, the team at Upper East Side Cardiology can help. To find out if the VenaSeal procedure is right for you, call our office or schedule a visit with Dr. Bhusri today.
