You have to know that, except for spider veins, the evaluation of venous disease(s) by simple clinical (visual and palpation) criteria may be misleading in a great number of cases. If necessary, our Vein Disorders Center is equipped to evaluate, by non invasive means, any form of venous disease, superficial and deep alike. In that regard, with our experience since 1983, our diagnostic abilities and expertise equals, if not even surpasses, that of many teaching hospitals. The followings are the non invasive diagnostic tools used in our Center's vascular laboratory:

1. Bidirectional continuous wave Doppler ultrasound . This is the "stethoscope "of the specialist in vein disorders. Named after the Austrian physicist Hans Christian Doppler of the last century, the venous Doppler determines the existence of flow (patency) as well as the direction of flow (forward = competence / reversed (downward)=incompetence) in both superficial and/or deep veins.

2. Air- plethysmography or APG - 1000. Like other existing forms of plethysmography, the air-plethysmograph can determine the presence of acute deep vein thrombosis.This whole calf air plethysmograph also enables for the first time the quantitative hemodynamic assessment of venous incompetence (reflux), as well as that of calf muscle pump functions such as ejection fraction and residual volume fraction. The later represents the non invasive modality to measure the ambulatory venous pressure. Please visit ACI Medical's website.

3. Venous duplex imaging Enables the visualization, without injection of contrast material, of anatomical details of your deep and superficial veins. Coupled with Doppler ultrasound, it gives the examiner a non invasive tool that is capable of assessing not only anatomical but functional parameters of the visualized vein. Duplex imaging is the ultimate tool in the hands of the skilled practitioner.

Please remember that the clinical examination supplemented by a proper non-invasive work up will enable us to tailor the therapeutic procedure(s) to your own specific needs. In most cases ( 90%+), however, the simple Doppler ultrasound examination will be sufficient.

CONCLUSION:

Before varicose vein surgery usually the simple hand held Doppler test in our hands will be sufficient to tailor the procedure for the patient’s needs. As we do not perform the surgery under general anesthesia but local we do not need blood work, electrocardiogram and certainly a chest x-ray. All this in conjunction with the fact that we operate in an office setting for which setup there are no fees increases the cost efficiency of this minimally invasive surgery.