ET - ISSUE 2200 Sunday 3 June 2001

Doctors cure varicose veins with a single injection
By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent

BRITISH doctors have carried out the first successful trials of a treatment that eliminates varicose veins after just a single injection.

Varicose veins affect more than five million people in Britain alone and can lead to leg ulcers, serious inflammation and potentially life-threatening blood clots. The condition is caused by the pooling of blood in faulty vessels and each year about 60,000 people have to undergo painful and costly surgery on the National Health Service to have seriously defective veins removed.

The cost of private treatment and fears over surgery deter many thousands more from seeking help. Now a technique that involves nothing more than one injection under local anaesthetic is poised to transform the treatment of varicose veins.

A Spanish vascular surgeon devised the method, which is now being developed by British scientists. The technique uses a special injectable microfoam impregnated with a "sclerosing" compound to attack cells in defective veins. As it is held in place by the foam, the compound causes the veins to collapse and disappear.

In its first-ever independent trials, the "Varisolve" treatment has proved spectacularly successful. More than 40 patients with moderate to severe varicose veins were treated at South Manchester University Health Centre and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. All were able to return to work within 24 hours, and after three months 81 per cent of the patients were completely cured. Another 10 per cent saw significant improvements.

Prof Charles McCollum, the consultant vascular surgeon who led the Manchester trial, said the results were very exciting. "The results are at least as good as surgery without the scars or the painful recovery time." According to Prof McCollum, the success of the trials opens the way to millions of patients being treated in outpatient clinics. He said: "With the right personnel, equipment and training, people suffering from major varicose veins can be treated as outpatients with remarkably little discomfort."

In addition to being safer, the surgery-free method is dramatically cheaper: while a typical operation to remove varicose veins costs around £1,800, the new technique could cost as little as £450. According to Dr David Wright, the medical director of Provensis, the Harefield-based company set up to commercialise the technique, it could also save the NHS million of pounds each year.

He said: "The problem with leaving varicose veins untreated is that for a proportion of patients they end up becoming leg ulcers. About 150,000 people have to be treated each year by the NHS for leg ulcers, but many of those may well have been preventable."

The company is now finalising plans for world-wide trials of the Varisolve treatment, involving hundreds of patients in Britain, Europe and America. According to Dr Wright, if these trials prove successful, the treatment could become generally available within five years.

Women are about three times more likely to develop varicose veins than men, and they typically start to appear from the mid-forties onwards - chiefly among the overweight, and those with sedentary ways of living.

-- Anonymous, June 02, 2001