Healing Venous Ulcers With Vein Closure

Treatments that close down varicose veins can sometimes help venous leg ulcers heal. Dr. Dev Batra describes the experiences of one of his patients that was living with a venous leg ulcer, and how he used a vein closure procedure to help heal her ulcer.

Venous leg ulcers are the most severe manifestation of chronic venous disease. We recently cared for a 50 year old patient with an open leg ulcer that had been living with severe cramping, pain, and heaviness in both of her legs for nearly 10 years. This is not uncommon – unfortunately, individuals affected by vein problems tend to live with ulcers or other debilitating symptoms of chronic venous disease for several years before finding their way to an effective treatment strategy.

For this patient (and several others with venous leg ulcers), we were able to dramatically improve the health of her legs with modern vein treatment and coordinated care with a wound specialist.

Treatment of Venous Leg Ulcers With Thermal Vein Closure

Given the extent of our patient’s vein disease, we opted to treat the GSV and SSV in both of her legs with radiofrequency ablation, followed by foam sclerotherapy to take care of the tributaries – effectively shutting down all of her diseased veins. Following treatment, the patient’s symptoms of swelling, heaviness, and pain dramatically improved. Her ulcer healed, and her skin color returned to a normal tone with some visual artifacts of the previous ulceration. Our patient has since reported that she is now able to work pain free and her quality of life has majorly improved.

Our patient before (left) and after (right) vein treatment for her venous leg ulcer.

This is not an exceptional case by any means. In our previous article, we provided an in-depth review of the clinical studies that have demonstrated the impact of radiofrequency ablation in the healing of venous leg ulcers and the prevention of ulcer recurrence. Vein treatment is certainly a more proactive approach than the conservative management techniques of traditional wound care, but proactive patients may find that their leg ulcers are directly caused by very treatable vein disease.