Ultrasound Guided Sclerotherapy

Sclerotherapy has been a routine medical vein procedure since the 1960's, particularly in Europe. It has been used for visible varicose veins and for spider veins or thread veins.

The major advancement of Ultrasound Guided Sclerotherapy in the 90's is that special duplex ultrasound equipment (similar to that used to look at babies in pregnancy) is now used to find and inject the part of the varicose vein that is not visible on the surface.  The ultrasound also allows a thorough check of the deep vein system before treatment.

The area between the groin and the knee is extremely important to treat, as the flow of blood is running backwards down the leg from the junction of the varicose vein and the deep vein. Before Ultrasound Guided Sclerotherapy (UGS) this part of the vein could not be treated leading to temporary improvement only. With UGS the veins can now be closed permanently.

Sclerotherapy uses powerful sclerosants which are agents that create inflammation in the lining of the vein.  This is turn leads to the body using it's natural healing mechanisms to heal the inflammation with scar tissue which effectively closes the vein thereby allowing the blood to continue up the normal deep veins rather than falling down the incompetent varicose vein.

The sclerosants used are sodium tetradecyl sulphate (STS) and polidocanol.