Tag: spider & varicose vein doctor NJ

What is Chronic Venous Insufficiency? A Vascular Doctor NJ Explains

Patients who speak with a vascular doctor in NJ about their varicose veins and swollen legs & ankles often discover that they are suffering from chronic venous insufficiency. While the symptoms of this condition are often easy to see, its root cause is often much less clear. What is chronic venous insufficiency and what can be done to treat it? Read on to learn more.

What should New Jersey patients know about chronic venous insufficiency?

Understanding chronic venous insufficiency begins with understanding how veins function. Healthy veins effectively transport blood from a person’s outer extremities to their heart. This trip is aided by a series of small valves attached to the veins’ walls. These valves allow blood to move towards the heart while preventing it from flowing backwards.

Trauma, lifestyle factors, and age can all lessen these valves’ effectiveness. Blood may begin to flow backwards into the vessels below. This backflow can lead to the symptoms most often associated with chronic venous insufficiency. Extra fluid in the lower extremities can lead to swelling in the legs and ankles. The pressure from excess blood may cause vessels to bulge outward, leading to ropy, twisted varicose veins. These symptoms may also be accompanied by discomfort and achiness.

Treating Chronic Venous Insufficiency

While the beginning stages of chronic venous insufficiency are not generally considered a medical emergency, over time a patient may be at greater risk for blood clots and ulcers. Therefore, it is wise for anyone suffering from this issue to seek out a vein specialist in Bergen County for treatment. There are many techniques that can lessen the impact caused by this issue, including lifestyle changes that improve other areas of a patient’s health.

Treatment that focuses on lifestyle choices is referred to as conservative treatment and is often utilized as a first step in addressing chronic venous insufficiency. Weight loss, regular exercise, and occupational changes can all improve vein function. Patients may be encouraged to wear compression stockings or avoid standing or sitting in the same position for extended periods of time. Exercising regularly helps improve blood flow, while weight loss may reduce the amount of pressure put on vessels.

If lifestyle changes are not enough, a spider & varicose veins doctor in NJ may provide a minimally invasive vein treatment. These procedures remove damaged veins from the circulatory system without requiring large incisions or lengthy recovery periods. Instead, a small series of incisions or the insertion of a very small catheter is all that is necessary to address the issue. Due to the minimally invasive nature of such treatments, most patients are able to return to their daily lives immediately or very shortly after their procedure.

Chronic venous insufficiency is a potentially dangerous condition that can cause symptoms that range from unsightly veins to downright painful and achy legs. Fortunately, most patients can eliminate the issue through minimally invasive treatments and lifestyle changes. Our goal at Chuback Medical Group is to find the course of treatment that best suits your needs. We would love to speak with you further about how Dr. John Chuback can help address your concerns. For more information from a leading vascular doctor NJ, give our office a call at 201-693-4847. We look forward to hearing from you!

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A New Jersey Vascular Doctor Answers the Question: “Will My Health Insurance Cover Varicose Vein Treatment?”

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You’ve started to notice that you often experience swollen legs and ankles, and you’re starting to see varicose veins or the smaller spider veins appear. You’ve read enough to know that there are serious health concerns associated with venous disease and you’d like to see a vein specialist in Bergen County to find out what your treatment options are, but in the back of your mind is the idea that varicose veins and spider veins are primarily a “cosmetic” concern, so you’re worried whether treatment would be covered by your insurance company.

You are right to be concerned. Health insurers are fickle, and their rules are arcane and often difficult to understand. That is why the New Jersey vascular doctors at Chuback Medical Group are available to work with patients to help them work effectively with their insurers to receive the best care. Although the decision as to whether treatment is fully covered is an individual one – depending on the patient’s case and the insurer – in this article we’ll offer some general information about this issue.

Reasons why your insurance will likely cover treatment that is medically needed

While it is true that varicose vein removal can be thought of as a cosmetic procedure, the vein disease that causes it is very much a real disease. Varicose veins are often caused by an underlying condition called chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) or venous reflux. This condition can cause numerous complications and increase your risk of developing even more serious diseases, such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which can potentially be fatal.

That is why we give every patient a thorough examination to determine the exact nature of their venous health in their first appointment with us. If we find evidence of CVI or DVT, there is an excellent chance that your insurance carrier will cover the cost of varicose vein removal, because it reduces the risks to your overall health, and reduces the likelihood of even greater expenditures in the future. If early treatment can be presented as preventative and therefore a way to avoid more expensive therapies in the future, your insurer may well pay for them.

Reasons why your insurer is not likely to pay for spider vein treatment

Because these smaller discolored spider veins are not considered as much of a threat to your overall health, many insurers will consider their removal a cosmetic procedure and it may not be covered under your policy. But if the spider veins are a part of a larger, more extensive case of vein disease, insurers may choose to cover treatment of them in some cases.

Whoever pays for the treatment, you won’t have to miss work to receive it

Whether your varicose vein removal is fully paid for by your insurer or not, the nature of modern NJ vein disease treatment means that you don’t have to check in to a hospital for the procedures, or take time off from work to recover from them. All of the varicose vein and spider vein treatments we offer can be performed in the comfort of our offices, and in about an hour. The procedures are nearly painless so that there is no need for general anesthesia, and no long recovery periods are necessary. You can walk into our offices for treatment and return to your work or other duties the same day.

Because all health insurance companies are different, it is wise to contact your company’s customer service representatives to find out their specific policies. Our New Jersey spider and varicose vein doctors will be happy to help you navigate this process to make sure you receive the care you need. Give us a call today at 201-693-4847 to get the process started.

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A Bergen County Vein Specialist Answers the Question “Can You Really Make My Varicose Veins Go Away Forever?”

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This is one the questions we are asked most frequently in our practice as spider vein and varicose vein doctors in New Jersey. The short answer is “Yes,” but to fully appreciate it, you need to understand how your veins work normally, and what causes them to become varicose.

What causes varicose veins?

Normal, healthy veins rely on a series of tiny, one-way valves that open in response to the contraction of surrounding muscles and allow blood to pass through them on its way back to the heart and lungs. These valves then close to prevent blood from flowing back into the veins. If the valves – as the result of damage or a disease called chronic venous insufficiency – begin to malfunction, they become “leaky,” and blood flows back into the veins and pools there. This is what causes the veins to swell and to become discolored, taking on the bluish-purple color of deoxygenated blood.

Can these diseased veins be fixed or repaired?

Once a vein has become varicose, the process cannot be reversed. Conservative treatment using compression stockings can improve your circulation and eliminate some of the pain that often accompanies varicose veins, but this will neither shrink the swollen veins or return them to their normal color. At this point, no medications have yet been discovered that will accomplish this.

So what can be done to eliminate these varicose veins?

Although varicose veins and the smaller spider veins cannot be healed, modern medicine can take advantage of the body’s own mechanisms to remove them and allow healthier veins in the area to take over the work of routing deoxygenated blood back to the heart and lungs. In the past, the only way to do this was via a surgical process called “vein stripping,” in which the surgeon made incisions in the skin and then literally scraped away the diseased veins with a scalpel. This was obviously not a pleasant process, and often left scars that were as unattractive as the varicose veins had been.

Modern medical science removes varicose veins by using minimally invasive methods to cause them to collapse and shrink. Over the next few days following treatment, the collapsed veins are absorbed into surrounding tissue and become invisible, and neighboring healthy veins take over to restore normal circulation.

What treatments are available to do this, and what do they involve?

All of the varicose vein and spider vein treatments provided by NJ vascular doctor John Chuback can be performed in the comfort of his Chuback Medical Group offices, in about an hour. One method used to treat spider veins is called sclerotherapy, in which a tiny catheter (smaller than the needle used to give you a flu shot) is inserted into the diseased vein and a sealing agent is injected to collapse and seal the vein. Other methods accomplish the same goal of closing the diseased veins using heat.

Within a few days you will start to notice relief from the pain and swelling that often accompanies varicose veins, and within a few months all visible traces of them will be gone. It is possible to develop new varicose veins, of course, but part of our ongoing vein disease treatment in New Jersey is to offer our patients advice on diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices that can reduce the chances of this happening.

So if you’re interested in getting rid of your varicose veins, pick up your phone and call Bergen County vein specialist at 201-693-4847 to schedule an initial examination. Dr. Chuback and his caring staff will take care of the rest, giving you clear, understandable information about the various treatment options.

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