Living with swollen, rope-like, enlarged veins that disrupt the blood flow from your legs to your heart, cause leg pain, make your legs feel heavy when standing or walking, or can create blood clots can be relieved with surgery. Your Glendora General Surgeon will need to know all of the medications and over-the-counter vitamins, pain relievers, or drugs that you are taking that may interfere with your surgery. You may be told to stop any medicines or non-prescription pain relievers or vitamins for several days before your operation as they may make it harder for your blood to clot after the procedure.
Your surgeon will tell you how many hours before surgery you will not be allowed to eat or drink. But, if permissible, you will be instructed to take your prescription medications with a few drops of water. You will be informed about the post-operative care needed for a positive recovery, when to make follow up appointments to monitor your progression, and when you can resume normal daily activities.
General Surgical Information
- There are several names for varicose vein surgery that include Vein Stripping, Venous Reflux, Vein Ligation and Stripping, but the purpose, regardless of the name, is to reduce the swelling, relieve the pain, and improve the appearance of your legs.
- The operation will be performed in a hospital, and you will be required to stay overnight for observation. The surgery generally takes between 1 to 2 hours for completion.
- After the surgery, your legs will be covered with cloth bandages to help control post-operative swelling and reduce the chances of bleeding. You will need to wear these bandages for several days or, depending on your personal situation, the bandages may need to be worn for a few weeks.
- There is minimal or no scarring from this type of operation.
- Your surgeon will tell you when, and for how long, you will need to wear compression stockings.
The Surgery
- Before the surgery, you will either be given a general anesthetic so that you will sleep through the procedure and not feel any pain, or you will be given a spinal anesthetic to numb the lower part of your body so that you will not have any pain.
- The surgeon will make a few small incisions in each leg to be operated on. One incision will be in the groin area, and the other incisions will be near the top, middle, and bottom of the affected veins in your ankle or calf areas.
- A thin, plastic wire is threaded into your vein at the groin incision and guided downward to the first lower incision in your calf or ankle.
- The wire is tied to your vein and then pulled out, with the vein, at the lowest incision.
- If you have more than one damaged vein in a leg, your surgeon will make small incisions near those veins and either remove them or tie them off during the operation. This additional procedure is called ambulatory phlebectomy.
- After all of the affected veins have been removed or tied off, your incisions will be closed with sutures.
- Your legs will be wrapped in bandages, and you will be taken to a recovery area before going to your hospital room.
