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How a chemical foam is being used to treat varicose veins

Published  November 17, 2016 1:45pm EST
Health
FOX 2 Detroit

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WJBK) - The kids call him Coach Jay.

Fifty-year-old Cengiz Adyingoz is a program director and hockey coach at the Troy Sports Center. He's spent years on the ice, and it's taken a toll on a part of his body that's a little surprising -- his veins. 

"After skating on the ice for 7 to 8 hours, I would have a huge bulge on the side of my leg and would have a hard time getting my jeans up my leg," he says.

The problem was vericose veins.

Sometimes they're just ugly, and sometimes they're painful. Jay says for him, it's both.

"My veins look like an actual cauliflower; they were so big," he says. "I've had this for the last 13 years. I finally realized that I need to get this taken care of."

And that's whats happening at the Beaumont Vein Center in Sterling Heights. You can see in the video how doctors used black marker to map out the vericose veins on Jays's right leg.

The cause of vericose veins is damaged valves that make it difficult for the muscles to push the blood uphill. The solution is to shut down the veins.

Dr. Michael Bischoff is using a relatively new treatment on Jay, a foam called varithena.

The foam is injected into the main vein, which then diverts the blood into healthy veins and the bad vein is chemically destroyed.

"In order to make this work you have to ablate or destroy the saphenous vein because it's the root of the problem," explains Dr. Bischoff.

It used to take surgery to get rid of the vein. Or, recently, lasers have also been used to collapse the vein. Now, chemicals like this foam can do it.

"And by chemically ablating the saphenous vein and removing all those varicose veins, his leg is going to look a lot better and feel a lot better," says Dr. Bischoff. "He should be able to return to skating without any problem."

"Well I know I'll feel a lot better. I'll feel comfortable and knowing that I won't have anymore pain in my right leg at all, knowing that I can bend my knees, I can skate; I can turn; I can twist; I can do cross-overs and jump over hockey bags, and shoot a hockey puck," Jay says.

Jay is recovering well and just had same treatment on other leg. The cost is about $2,500, but now more insurance comapanies are starting to cover the foam treamtment.