When Dr. Lee describes the procedure during your consultation, many patients tell us it sounds quite painful. It’s not. Prior to working on any vein, Dr. Lee injects the area with local anesthetic. This numbs the skin across the vein and keeps you from feeling the small incisions or the insertion of the hook to grab the poorly functioning vein. While our blood vessels don’t have any nerves, the surrounding skin certainly does. But the local anesthetic keeps you comfortable.
Afterwards, you may have some soreness, but it’s easily handled with over-the-counter pain medication. The lack of pain or any noticeable recovery is far different from the old method of surgically removing varicose veins, vein stripping.