Pioneering vein treatment speeds patient recovery and cuts NHS costs

Aug. 18, 2011 - PRLog -- A recent white paper of the Health and Social Care Bill indicated the huge scale of cost savings that need to be made in the NHS.

The VNUS Closure Procedure, for varicose veins, takes the treatment away from theatres, thereby saving the need for a general anaesthetic and an overnight stay in hospital. The other benefit of the treatment is that the patient can return to normal activities the next day.

The procedure is minimally invasive, and is commonly performed in either a doctor’s office or as an out-patient procedure. It uses radio-frequency energy passing through a catheter in the diseased vein to heat its walls up and close it. The patient's blood is then rerouted to healthy veins.

The VNUS Closure Procedure is also clinically proven to cause less post-operative pain than other methods. The closure procedure does not involve pulling the diseased vein from the thigh as with vein stripping surgery, or using 700°C laser energy which boils blood to occlude a vein.

Comparative studies have also shown that patients receiving the closure procedure can return to normal activity and work significantly faster than those receiving vein stripping.

More information is available at: http://vnus.co.uk/vascular-disease/varicose-veins.aspx