About 25% of all women and 15% of all men suffer from varicose veins. Your veins carry blood from the capillaries to the heart; in your leg, this means the blood has to flow upward, against gravity. Consequently, these veins have one-way valves to prevent the blood from back flowing. Over time these valves can fail to close tightly, allowing blood to pool, causing the bulging, twisting characteristic of varicose veins.
Endovascular Laser Venous System (ELVS) is the new non-surgical laser procedure for varicose veins. It achieves excellent results without the pain and lengthy recovery of traditional surgical vein stripping. If you have been living with the pain and self-consciousness of varicose veins, ELVS offers new hope.
Surgery involves considerable preparation, general anesthesia, pain in the affected areas, and a lengthy recovery period. ELVS eliminates all of that—-it’s minimally invasive. The entry point through which the laser fiber reaches the target area is tiny. No stitches are required. Plus, the risk of infection is extremely low. With ELVS there is minimal discomfort and no downtime. When the ELVS procedure is complete, you can return to normal activity.
If you would like additional information or would like to schedule an appointment for varicose vein treatment, please contact The Huntington-Hill Imaging Center at (626) 737-2563 and ask to speak to our patient advocate for ELVS.
Simply avoid taking any food or liquid two hours before the ELVS procedure.
As you are lying on a table, a thin laser fiber is inserted into the vein through a sheath. With ultrasound guidance, the radiologist guides the laser into position. You will receive a local anesthetic along the course of the laser fiber. The vein is lasered while the laser fiber is being pulled out. The ELVS procedure takes about an hour.
ELVS delivers the right wavelength of laser energy to the right tissue, causing the incompetent vein to close while your body automatically routes the blood to other healthy veins.
There may be some slight swelling right after the ELVS procedure, but you should start seeing results right away.
In clinical trials, ELVS laser treatment has proved to be 97% effective. Therefore, you should not experience a recurrence in the treated veins. Follow-up procedures may be necessary to obtain optimal aesthetic results.