"You're just, legs just feel like they get tired and heavy, and you just want to sit down and put them up," Christie Cooper, who suffered from varicose veins, told Ivanhoe.
Turns out, her varicose veins were making daily life impossible.
"They had progressively gotten bigger and bigger throughout the years, so it was really time to start thinking about taking them out," Cooper explained.
Dr. Alan Wladis from the Vascular Institute of Central Florida had the answer. A new gold-tipped laser fiber called VenaCure EVLT fiber, eradicates the vein with little risk or pain for patients.
"It's the misery of going through the day with 10 pound weights on their legs is what people complain about," Dr. Wladis told Ivanhoe.
You can see the heated tip route up the leg with ultrasound guidance as it burns out the vein. While the older, bare fiber tip cuts the vein, the gold tip coagulates it. The new method also offers less concentrated heat. That means less risk of puncturing the vein and less pain, too. Overall, it is 98 percent effective.
"They're up, walking out of your office, and they're back to their normal work in a day, four days at the most," Dr. Wladis said.
"It's been a really good thing, and [I'm] much more comfortable at the end of the day," Cooper said.
Now, she's back to moving and working like her old self.
Early studies on this new technology show it also results in less bruising for patients. In addition, the procedure is outpatient-based, lasts just one hour, and is normally covered by insurance.
