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Consultant Vascular Surgeon - Varicose and Thread Vein Expert

Blog

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Self Funding Your Private Varicose Vein Treatment

Increasingly, private hospitals are providing medical loans to enable patients to access private medicine and spread the costs with 0% interest or very low rates of interest with flexible repayment periods.

The cost of treatment of Varicose Veins depends on your outpatient assessment with Duplex ultrasound scan. Once this has been performed, Mr Gaunt can discuss with you, the various treatments appropriate for you and an estimate of costs can be provided. Once a treatment plan is agreed, the cost is fixed and that is the maximum you pay so there are no hidden surprises.

Thursday 24 October 2013

ClariVein – Results so far

In 2011, I was one of the first surgeons in the UK to offer the new technique of ClariVein for the treatment of varicose veins. We have now treated over 350 patients with the technique and I have been invited to present our results at the Vascular Society of GB & Ire. Meeting in November.

In the presentation, I will describe how successful ClariVein is for the treatment of varicose veins and how it can be performed in the outpatient clinic rather than the operating theatre. By use of local anaesthetic nerve blocks, we can achieve excellent anaesthesia and combine ClariVein with phlebectomies to provide a one stop solution. In selected cases, it is also possible to perform bilateral operations and treat more than one vein at a time. There have been no complications such as deep vein thrombosis and patient satisfaction is very high. ClariVein is also very affordable for self-pay patients.

Wednesday 16 October 2013

The importance of Follow-up Ultrasound Scans after Varicose Vein procedures

The use of colour Duplex ultrasound scans to diagnose venous conditions and guide modern treatments such as the endovenous laser has been one of the great advances in vascular medicine and surgery.

However, Duplex scans are also an important quality control method and are an essential part of the follow-up process after venous treatments.

The research I undertook as part of my Doctorate of Medicine thesis established ultrasound quality control as an important principle to improve patient outcomes. It is absolutely essential to apply a method to ensure that the result of any treatment has achieved its objective.

Therefore, all my venous patients undergo a repeat colour Duplex ultrasound scan as part of their routine follow-up consultation to ensure that the treatment has been 100% successful. Just relying on physical examination alone can be misleading and the scan can detect sections of vein which may not have completely sealed. Detected early, these veins can often be simply treated in the outpatient clinic. If missed, these veins can be a cause of early recurrent varicose veins which require further surgery to correct them.