While varicose veins mostly affect women, men can suffer from them as well. Varicose veins are twisted or enlarged veins that occur when blood vessels have turned a darker colour: purple or blue. When blood vessels are operating properly, blood pools in the vessel or stops flowing in the right direction. Although varicose veins can occur in any vein throughout the body, they are most common in the legs and feet. These can be unsightly on some people, and the more extreme their appearance, the harder it can be for the person to hide. In the summer months, this can be especially challenging, and this is often when people with varicose veins seek out help.
Varicose Vein Treatment Options
When it comes to varicose vein treatment options, a relatively new one is using super glue for veins. The story goes that when a doctor was performing a brain operation, he was using a type of glue and wondered if he could seal off damaged blood vessels in the same way that he was closing off a congenital brain malformation. That thought led to the development of the VenaSeal adhesive that is being used to close off veins. By closing off malfunctioning veins, this prevents that blood from pooling or flowing the wrong direction and over the past few years has become an effective option for treating varicose veins and has become more common to use in other medical procedures, rather than stitches or scalpels.
Super Glue Treatment
Medical-grade adhesives have been used for more than 50 years, but their application to the treatment of varicose veins is yet but another example of how versatile this type of super glue is in the world of medicine. The substrates in the medical-grade glue is what separates it from regular super glue that would burn on skin, without the addition of substrates. Closing wounds with glue is a noninvasive method that has a number of advantages such as faster healing times and keeping out bacteria.
Although varicose veins are mainly a cosmetic problem, in extreme cases, they can cause more serious issues where the legs and feet can swell; when this occurs, leg muscles are more likely to become fatigued and are more prone to injury. The use of super glue for varicose vein treatment is a positive development as it is noninvasive and has produced little known negative effects inside the body.