Via Rodolfo Lanciani, 69 - 00162 Roma

WHY AND WHEN TO OPERATE

Varicose veins are a disease fundamentally benign, slowly progressive, more or less symptomatic and more or less aesthetically disabling so that the patient often does not feel the need to treat them and tends to postpone any decision.

But we must consider that progression, even if slow, is inevitable so that in the time the varicose veins increase in number and size, and can complicate with varicophlebitis, edema, dermatitis and ulcers, so that it becomes difficult to treat at this stage by a decisive and minimally invasive way and by savings of the saphenous vein.

With increasing age other more serious diseases might occur: then varicose disease passes in second place and the operative risk increases so that the only therapy would be elastic stockings with the well-known difficulties to be worn especially by the older people because of the joint limitations of spinal column , hip and knee, and especially in summer (when the problems become more evident) because of the insupportable heat for wearing socks.

In conclusion, early intervention means minimally invasive surgery, preserving of saphenous vein, lower rate of recurrence and healthy legs both functionally and aesthetically.