All is not lost. In addition to neovascularisation, there are other reasons for early failure. There is a large body of opinion that believes that up to 60% of patients with varicose veins that have received no treatment do NOT need a Duplex ultrasound scan. The problem with that is that going by examination findings alone will result in one third of the patients concerned getting the wrong or an inadequate operation.

At the Whiteley Clinic all our patients are advised to have a scan so that accurate treatment can be planned and not left to guesswork. Just going ahead with a standard long saphenous tie and strip with no scan will miss reflux in veins in other parts of the limb such as the short saphenous vein, other named veins and perforator veins (see Anatomy).

Failure to fix all refluxing veins is tantamount to only mending one hole in the bottom of your shoe when four others exist. You will still get wet feet! Not only do we do a diagnostic scan to get a complete picture of what is going on in your legs we also do all our surgery under Duplex ultrasound guidance.

This means that if we have to use traditional techniques we know exactly where the stripper is at all times and can therefore guarantee that the correct vein is removed and not some other vein that the tip of the stripper happens to have meandered down because it happened to be the line of least resistance.