Webinar on HIFU treatment for veins

Cartoon explaining HIFU Treatment of Varicose Veins – Webinar 13 August 2020

We HIFU treatment for veins is one of the most exciting new treatments for varicose veins and venous leg ulcers.

HIFU stands for “High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound”. Because ultrasound can go straight through the skin, there is no incision at all. It is totally non-invasive as a treatment.

Ultrasound passes into the body, focused at one point. At this focal point, the ultrasound destroys a small volume of tissue. However, there is no damage to any of the surrounding tissue or skin. This is the advantage of being focused.

The technique is also called Echotherapy. You might also see it called Sonovein, as this is the name of the machine that is used.

HIFU treatment for veins presented at an international webinar.

Prof Mark Whiteley of The Whiteley Clinic has been the first doctor in the world to introduce this technique into clinical practice.

He and his team have been collecting data on the first patients who have been treated over the last year. Prof Victor Canata invited Mark to present his experience at an international webinar held on 13 August 2020.

Victor hosted the webinar from South America. Mark Whiteley spoke about HIFU and Prof Kursat Bozkurt about cyanoacrylate glue for treating varicose veins.

Both speakers gave a lecture for about 20 minutes and then had 40 minutes of questions from venous experts from around the world. The YouTube clip embedded in this post starts at the beginning of the lecture on HIFU.

HIFU treatment for veins at The Whiteley Clinic.

The Whiteley Clinic started offering HIFU treatment to selected patients in May 2020.

As experience in the technique increases, we are finding more patients who could be treated effectively with this new treatment.

Over the next months and years, treatments will speed up and more patients will be able to have the advantage of completely non-invasive “surgery” to their veins.

The advantages of HIFU over endovenous laser, radiofrequency and cyanoacrylate glue are:

Immediately after varicose veins surgery using HIFU Treatment of Varicose Veins – Webinar 13 August 2020

• Nothing goes inside the vein
• Therefore there is no risk of anything travelling into the venous system nor any risk of introducing infection
• We perform HIFU in a simple outpatient room. There is no need any operating theatre
• There is no need for any general anaesthetic, spinal anaesthetic, sedation or even tumescent anaesthesia
• Our early results suggest that patients having HIFU don’t even need to wear compression stockings after treatment in the majority of cases

As our research and development continues at The Whiteley Clinic, we will be able to prove other advantages to the HIFU technique and of course find which patients might not be suitable for the technique.

Currently, HIFU is exclusively available at The Whiteley Clinic in the UK. If you have any questions about HIFU treatment of varicose veins and venous leg ulcers, or any other questions about venous disease, please do not hesitate to contact us.