Review of treatment for varicose veins

Varicose veins affect 20-25% of the general population in the UK. Open surgery dominated the treatment approach until the end of the millennium with variable outcome. During the last 15 years minimally invasive endovenous approach have been developed with better overall result. Many of these newer methods have been tested through large scale clinical trials with promising result. In this review I have analysed the treatment outcome comparing radiofrequency ablation, laser ablation, open surgical procedure and Ultrasound Guided Foam Sclerotherapy collecting the evidence from large scale clinical trials and from Cochrane analysis. Although there are no robust evidence for some of the newer procedures, the techniques appear to be attractive and hopefully will have a place for treatment of varicose veins in future. Despite these advances in the treatment of varicose veins there remains many unanswered questions that have been discussed.