Endovenous Laser Treatment

[McKenzie]

I had an evaluation of my varicose veins. I have a reflux of about 4 seconds. 1/2 second is a normal time. I'm considering having endovenous therapy to see if it will help me to feel better.

Has anyone done this? Did it help you?

[issie]

When I was 26, they didn't have laser type things to do with varicose veins. But, what they did was remove "branches" of varicose veins. This was the best thing I ever did for myself. My legs hurt so bad that I couldn't sleep and couldn't stand any type of pressure behind my knees. My veins were as large as my fingers - sticking out and it hurt. Getting rid of the pain from them, was wonderful. I don't know if it helped POTS or not - but it sure did make my legs feel better.

Then after that, I had what's called sclerosing therapy - they inject saline into the little small veins to make them shrivel up and die. This was further help to me - it made my legs look and feel a whole lot better.

Issie

[nunntrio]

I have had a lot of work done on my veins. The procedures helped a lot with the pain from the veins but so far I can not say they have helped with POTS. However I is still have pelvic congestion syndrome (veins with reflux in my pelvis) that is untreated. Still deciding if I want to undergo the procedure to fix that. The Dr. I consulted said he can not say if it would help with POTS. His experience in dealing with POTS patients with PCS is that some are helped somewhat by the procedure while some have not been helped at all (he has done 5-6 patients with both conditions). At this point their is no published data on it. Again, that was just his personal experience.

[McKenzie]

Thank you for sharing your experiences! My Dr. doesn't know if it will help with POTS. Even though I have bad reflux, my legs/veins aren't painful. I know I have some in the pelvic area as well, so doing just the legs may not be beneficial.

[Brye]

I had an EVLT with phlebectomy. Was before diagnosed with POTS but had CP during both procedures, probably early sign of POTS from all the epinephrine they used to numb the area. Still developed severe POTS. In the end my big veins just popped out in other places. Did help blood flow to my legs. Had a venous stasis ulcer at the time that healed up really well when it was done. Also had the ultrasound guided sclerotherapy done and that helped with my venous flow as well. One leg had more treatments, had to stop due to pregnancy and the leg that wasn't treated with the sclerotherapy is the one that gets more swollen.