Treatments
Vein Glue
Cyanoacrylate adhesive, also known as super glue, or vein glue, has been used for many years to treat venous malformations elsewhere in the body. In the past few years this has been used as another minimally invasive method to treat stubborn segments of varicose veins in the legs which are not amenable to laser and not effectively treated with Ultrasound guided sclerotherapy.
Vein glue is a variety of Super Glue or Cyanoacrylate Adhesive, which, when injected into large veins, causes a strong reaction within the vein wall, causing the vein to rapidly shrink and close.
Only a very small amount of glue needs to be injected in an area to effect closure of even large veins. Dilated short segments of veins and incompetent perforating veins can be treated with these products. There are usually less injections required than when using sclerotherapy alone, and treatment is much simpler than Endovenous Laser.
With vein glue treatment, Dr McMaster tends to use the product to close short segments of vein which are not amenable to treatment with other methods. Often there are only a couple of injections with the treatment. However because of the glue viscosity the needles are of greater diameter and often a bit more painful with the initial injection. The vein then needs to be manually compressed for a couple of minutes, before compression stockings are applied.
As with sclerotherapy, compression stockings are required to be worn for 1-2 weeks. A check up and further injections may be necessary to ensure vein closure. Your legs are not usually painful following treatment.
This is not exactly the same product, but is very similar in both chemical composition and mechanism of action.
Although it has only been used for treatment of varicose veins since the mid 2010s, cyanoacrylate adhesive has been in use in other medical procedures for many years and has a good safety profile.
This varies depending on the product used, and ranges from a few seconds to several minutes.