Avoid Wrong Treatments

While there are only few true vein specialist in every metropolitan area, there are many doctors who approach vein problems as a side work, and cannot or do not want to say to the patient “I am not a vein specialist and you’d better see a specialist”. Unfortunately when the physician has not been properly trained and is inexperienced in any field of medicine, treatment results will be less than satisfactory to many patients who learn the fact the hard way. Hopefully, by now, both physicians and the public have come to the understanding that treatment of vein related conditions is not a simple matter, and those who do not have proper training and experience, should not belittle the treatment of unsightly and varicose veins. Anyone who holds a painting brush is not necessarily a good painter, the same way, anyone who can hold a syringe in hand cannot produce good results when it comes to treating vein related conditions.

External lasers, cannot treat all sizes of unwanted veins, specially in the legs. Since learning proper sclerotherapy requires many years and the experience of treatment of thousands of cases, some physicians simplify the issue, and assume that zapping any size vein with laser will do the job. WRONG!! The only Golden Standard treatment of small superficial reticular (bluish small vessels) and spider veins is by sclerotherapy, provided it is done by an experienced vein specialist, and not by anyone who can holds a syringe in hand. My advise is to avoid wasting your money on laser treatments that have generally produced more problems and disappointments than help to patients.

Another wrong is cutting and ligating any unwanted vein that comes to the eye: Some surgeons, who do not have proper understanding and training of vein problems of legs, think they can just cut the skin, and interrupt superficial unwanted veins by ligation or a simple cuts. WRONG!! Unwanted varicose and unsightly veins are due to abnormal blood flows, which must be corrected at their roots. I try to simplify the issue using this example: Trying to block an overflown river by dumping some dirt in the river will obviously result in the water bypassing the pile of dirt and find other grooves in the land and continue its current. Example photos on this page show exactly the same mistakes committed by general surgeons who have not had proper training in dealing with legs vein problems. Their wrong work has just added the ugly scenes of scars on top of the original unwanted veins that are steel there. One must think of and correct the reason for the river to be over flown first, such as looking for a crack in the dam, and then worry about the river having too much water. In many cases of leg veins problem such as varicose veins or specific clusters of spider veins, before a treatment plan is suggested, the physician should evaluate the leg vein using color duplex ultrasound and doppler and map the roots of the problem first. My recommendation is that, like a curious detective, the physician should learn how to do the ultrasound mapping himself/herself. If the doctor does not know how to do ultrasound, then at least he/she must be physically present when the ultrasound technician (sonographer) is doing the study and assist the sonographer in finding the anatomical variations which are very common in the case of leg veins and varicose veins.

In all fairness I should add that considering the complexity of some cases of spider or varicose vein problems, even in experienced hands, rarely the treatment does not go very smoothly. But when an experienced professional does a job, the risks are lower, complication rates are lower, and if something goes wrong, an experienced professional is better equipped to address and correct the problem.

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Medical Clinic Inc

Dr. Khalil Fattahi

Diplomat, American Board of Phlebology
Diplomat, American Board of Internal Medicine
Inventor of Foam-Washout Sclerotherapy for varicose veins
60,000+ sclerotherapy sessions experience
10,000 Endovenous Laser Ablations experience

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I have been a patient of Dr. Fattahi since December 2007 for different vein related problems. I have experienced the ELVeS procedure, foam sclerotherapy,. . .

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I had unsightly veins that ultimately caused me to be too self-conscious to wear skirts or shorts. I first paid several hundred dollars to a laser dermatologist to remove the veins...

Medical Clinic Inc

Vein Specialty Medical Clinic

Spider veins are small, irregular, purplish or bluish unsightly vessels. Slightly larger and greenish veins, always feed spider veins. Achieving good results depends on treatment of spider and feeder veins.

Varicose veins always result from abnormal flow of blood in opposite the normal direction. In such cases, there is an incompetence of the one way barriers (valves) between the deep and superficial leg vein systems, leading to abnormal flow of blood from the larger deep veins into the superficial smaller veins and creation of bulging varicose veins that often have a zigzag pattern and cause a variety of symptoms.

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