Cosmetic Vein Center

The Cosmetic Vein Center at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center takes an innovative approach to vein care. Staffed by board-certified vascular surgeons, St. Elizabeth’s is dedicated to using the latest technologies and both non-surgical and minimally invasive approaches in the diagnosis and treatment of vascular diseases.

The Cosmetic Vein Center offers both cosmetic and therapeutic treatments of varicose veins and spider veins. In addition, physicians are specifically educated and trained to assess, diagnose, educate, and treat patients with venous disease.

Treatments include:

• Endovenous Thermal Ablation: a minimally invasive treatment that involves the insertion of a thin, flexible tube called a catheter into a diseased vein and uses heat to seal it shut. Blood that would normally return toward the heart through these veins will then travel through other veins instead. Over time the treated vein shrinks and is absorbed by the body. Compared with surgical options like vein stripping, endovenous thermal ablation results in less pain and quicker average recovery time.

• Vein Stripping: a small incision is made in the groin area and usually another incision is made in the calf below the knee. Then a physician disconnects and ties off all major varicose vein branches associated with the saphenous vein, the main superficial vein in your leg. Then the saphenous vein is removed from the leg.

• Stab Phlebectomy: also called ambulatory phlebectomy, this procedure can be done alone or together with vein stripping. Stab phlebectomy allows a physician to remove individual varicose vein clusters from the leg using hooks passed through small incisions. Because the incisions are so small, they don’t require stitches, there is very little pain and a shorter recovery period.