Laser Procedure-The Cool Touch Advantage
On the day of your procedure, your leg will be cleaned and disinfected with a solution. Then, sterile drapes will be placed around your leg before the procedure commences. Next, our doctors will use ultrasound to locate and confirm the position of the incompetent (leaking) vein and the best access site. They will then inject a small amount of lidocaine over the area of access on the diseased vein so you will not feel the insertion of the small catheter into your vein.
Then, the laser fiber is introduced into the vein and placed above the leaky valve or at 1.5cm from the sapheno-femoral junction. Its position is confirmed using ultrasound, and then the laser is anchored to avoid displacement of the laser fiber.
Next, using ultrasound and under direct visualization, a numbing solution will be injected along the course of the vein. Then, the laser will be turned on and automatically pulled back—as the laser fiber is pulled back it causes closure of the abnormal vein. This procedure takes only a few minutes.
At the end of the procedure, an ace wrap will be placed around your leg and you will be ready to go home within 15-20 minutes. Some patients will need additional procedure such as micro-phlebectomy (removal of branches of abnormal veins through very tiny incisions that do not need stitching) and/or sclerotherapy (injection of a sclerosing foam into the abnormal veins to close them off).
Our approach is to provide all treatments at the same time as we perform the laser ablation procedure. Since our patients are sedated, they feel very little pain during the added treatments. This also gives our patients the very best results in the least amount of time.