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| Tying and Stripping of Veins Under General Anaesthetic |
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Traditional varicose vein surgery is performed under general anaesthetic - 80% of the operations are on the Great Saphenous Vein (GSV). This entails cutting into the groin, tying the vein at the top where it joins the major vein in the leg, called the femoral vein, and then passing a wire down the inside of the vein to strip it out, usually at the knee.
Approximately 20% of people need Small Saphenous Vein (GSV) surgery. In this situation, there is a cut made to the back of the knee, the vein is tied at this point where is goes into the popliteal vein (the main vein of the lower leg) and the vein is then stripped down to the Achilles tendon.
For the last hundred years, tying and stripping the veins has been regarded as the only way to treat veins and therefore has become thought of as the "gold standard".
However, recent research at The Whiteley Clinic has shown that, by damaging the patient this way, not only is it very painful and causes considerable bruising in the leg, but approximately a quarter of the patients grow the vein back to a greater or lesser extent within one year.
This is because the body doesn't understand that it has had surgery. As far as the body is concerned, it has had trauma. The blood in the tissue (bruising or haematoma) stimulates the ends of the veins to grow back again. As far as the body is concerned, it has received an injury such as a bite or a stabbing so naturally tries to grow back.
Therefore, not only is the old style of surgery painful, it also has very limited success.
Fortunately, in the late nineteen-nineties, new techniques were developed which can be controlled under local anaesthetic and, more recently, have been redeveloped to be performed under local anaesthetic to allow effective vein surgery with excellent long term results to be performed under local anaesthetic in the office or clinic setting.
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