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Nova's Vein Therapy Solution |
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At Vein Centers of America, we don't use saline in treating spider veins. We developed a specific dilution of sodium tetradecyl sulfate (FDA approved) for spider vein therapy because it is effective on the reticular veins and doesn't cause muscle cramps. We found that it works best when used in a particular way in treating abnormal vein conditions.
The medicines used to shrivel your veins (called "sclerosants") have no "seek ugly vein and destroy it" intelligence (in a manner similar to antibiotics that pursue and destroy specific bacteria). It is by skillful placement in a systematic fashion that we can carefully eliminate your abnormal veins.
Sclerotherapy is a simple and ingenious concept, but its proper execution is an art that can take years to master. The goal in any vein therapy is to trigger the targeted vein into destroying itself without damaging the surrounding tissue. If you've ever had soap in your eye while taking a shower you have experienced an inflammatory response: a red eye. This is similar to the inflammatory reaction in vein treatment, but in this case the eye recovers. Fortunately, the vein is vulnerable enough so that it does not recover. It shrivels and fades away over time. In sclerotherapy, any more inflammation than is necessary can cause damage to the surrounding skin. The principle of "minimally effective damage" (just enough to do the job) should be constantly considered with each injection. This is especially true if the veins are of different sizes and are at different depths in the skin. During vein treatment, understanding the variables of concentration, volume and "exposure time" of the solutions are important to fine-tune the results. We also use externally applied "compression", if necessary, for its anti-inflammatory action in order to lessen an exaggerated inflammatory response.
The solution we prefer (sodium tetradecyl sulfate) works by inflaming the vein wall. The protein of the vein wall, and the blood (also a protein) inactivates the solution we use. So there is deactivation at the site of injection, and the impact of the solution diminishes with distance from the site of the injection. This reassures you that distant areas of the body will not be affected by the solution during vein treatment, especially with the dilutions we use. Varicose veins and spider veins are "out of the circulation" because their "reflux" converts them into a sort of "cul de sac". This gives us confidence in the inherent safety of this technique for spider vein therapy and varicose vein treatment.
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