Sclerotherapy

Sclerotherapy is most frequently used to treat small (spider veins) to medium sized veins (visible varicose veins).

Sclerotherapy is a non-invasive injection technique employed to destroy abnormal veins which are not functioning correctly. These diseased veins are allowing blood to leak backwards causing reversal in the normal direction of blood flow.

Sclerosants can be injected directly into veins with the naked eye or using magnification. For larger veins access is obtained by using catheters. Veins deeper under the skin can be targeted using ultrasound guidance.

When the sclerosant is injected into the vein a single layer of cells are peeled away from inside the vein wall. It’s a chemical burn that only targets this inner layer of endothelial cells. This creates a reaction causing the vein to spasm and immediately collapse. The vein is immediately occluded and will eventually completely disintegrate, become resorbed and disappear.  

There are different classes of sclerosants but the two detergent sclerosants – sodium tetradecyl sulphate (“Fibrovein”) and polidocanol (“Aethoxysclerol”) are the most important and commonly used agents around the world today. Both these agents have been in use since the mid 1940s and have a long and proven track history of safety and efficacy.

These two detergent sclerosants have a unique feature in that they can be converted into “Foam”. Foam sclerotherapy is also far more efficient than liquid sclerotherapy when larger veins need to be treated.

Foam sclerotherapy has the unique advantage of being visible on ultrasound and so its progress in the vein can be tracked.

Foam sclerotherapy greatly increases the scope of work which can be achieved using Ultrasound Guided Foam Sclerotherapy (UGS) when treating extensive and more severe varicose veins.

The use of sclerosant foam was initially regarded as an ‘off label’ use of the liquid agent. Over the past few years, many regulatory authorities around the world have licensed foam sclerosants for treatment of venous disease.