3 more myths about veins

There's no point in operating on varicose veins as they always come back

Varicose veins have been treated as un-important for so long that doctors, nurses and patients themselves regard varicose veins as a minor problem - although in most cases it is wrong to do so. We know that the only way to accurately diagnose what is going wrong with the leg pump (ie: the leg veins) is a Duplex Ultrasound - but despite this, most surgeons still treat varicose veins without this test. Such surgeons are guessing where the problem is - and their operations are based on the educated guesses. There is good evidence that failing to do a Duplex Ultrasound this results in about one third of patients getting the wrong operation - therefore it's not surprising that these patients get their varicose veins back very quickly. Further, varicose vein surgery is usually carried out by non-specialist consultants or are left to the junior staff to perform the surgery. As such many surgeons have little interest in keeping up to date with the very latest techniques. It is clear that if varicose veins were discovered as a new disease tomorrow, and there was no history or prejudice about the condition, we would form guidelines that would include proper investigation and treatment. After all, you wouldn't have you gall-bladder taken out without and ultrasound to prove you had stones; you wouldn't have your bowel operated on without having a test to know where the problem is - why accept read more