Interventions for Varicose Veins: Beyond Ablation

Minimally invasive endothermal treatments have replaced surgical ligation and stripping in the management of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) and are now considered the standard of care. Newer techniques have emerged in the last few years in an attempt to further minimize the procedural discomfort associated with endothermal procedures. These new techniques are designed to avoid tumescent anesthesia (TA). These new non-thermal, tumescentless techniques are well tolerated and are shown to result in equivalent outcomes when compared to the thermal ablations. Since there is no data to support the argument that one of these therapies is truly superior to another, selection of a particular thermal or non-thermal technique is dependent on patient and physician preferences. Adoption of a particular non-thermal procedure is also dependent on other factors such as the learning curve, initial setup costs, overall cost-effectiveness and reimbursement. Once the reimbursement issues are resolved and durability is confirmed, these techniques have the potential to become the new standard of care for the management of CVI.