When Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley swung by Orr Elementary School in Washington, D.C., recently, he explained to the 100 kids circled around him that he’d already exercised that day.Teresa Fox’s leg peeks out from below layers of fabric. Her foot is wrapped, but the skin is exposed from just above her ankle to just above her knee.
The Decatur resident is undergoing a procedure to remove varicose veins. The procedure, called ClosureFast, has been touted as so improved from the previous treatment that patients can get it done on their lunch hour and for a lot less money.
Varicose veins are the dark, often raised veins found most often in the leg. They’re caused by weak walls in the vein and by gravity, says Dr. Vincent Scavo, the cardiovascular surgeon who removed Fox’s varicose veins in his offices at Lutheran Medical Group in Fort Wayne. Varicose veins can be painful and can lead to clots, infection, itching and tender areas.
Surgery for varicose veins, called vein stripping, has traditionally been painful and invasive. It required making slits in the thigh and groin and pulling the bad vein out with a hook. The recovery time is long and, because the treatment requires anesthesia and a hospital stay, it’s expensive, Scavo says.
ClosureFast, cleared for marketing in the United States in 1999, leaves the veins in the body. It heats them closed, and the body absorbs the useless vein. There is no need for anesthesia and therefore no need for a hospital room.
The procedure room in Scavo’s office is small and dimly lit. It creates a calming ambiance for Fox, but it also lets Scavo better see the ultrasound screen, which will guide him around Fox’s veins.
At the start of the procedure, Fox is tilted on the table with her legs down to dilate her veins. Scavo uses the ultrasound to locate the vein and then pokes a needle into it. He threads a wire through the vein and removes the needle. A plastic sheath is placed over the wire, which is then removed.
After Scavo threads the catheter into the sheath, Fox is tilted so that her legs are over her head, allowing the blood to drain from her veins. Scavo adds numbing medicine along the length of the vein, which not only numbs the area but lowers the vein from the surface of the skin, compressing the vein around the catheter and insulating the surrounding tissues from the catheter.
Scavo then uses radiofrequency ablation to heat the vein. The heating coil is only 6 centimeters long, so the heating process takes place in 6-centemeter intervals as he pulls the catheter from the vein.
When he removes all the instruments from the vein, Scavo uses the ultrasound machine to be sure the vein is closed.
The body will eventually absorb the leftover vein, Scavo says, and the blood that had been traveling through it gets redirected through other veins.
The full procedure takes less than an hour, after which Fox walks. Doctor’s orders.
Had she had her veins stripped, however, she’d certainly be in bed immediately after the surgery. Scavo is unsure how long the patient would be on bed rest, but it’s considerably longer than the ClosureFast procedure requires.
Fox had never considered vein stripping, a procedure she says scared her. A friend told Fox about ClosureFast. She liked that the ClosureFast procedure was less invasive, and it seemed safe. Others told her they had undergone it and had no problems.
“It just feels like little pricks in your leg,” Fox says.
For patients who need the procedure in both legs, Scavo likes to perform them a week apart. But Scavo is so booked that he won’t perform ClosureFast on Fox’s left leg until December, Fox says.
Scavo is one of three Fort Wayne doctors to perform ClosureFast, according to VNUS.com, a website about the procedure, with two others in northeast Indiana.
ClosureFast typically costs about $5,000, says Cathy Koogler, a receptionist at Scavo’s office.
