ABSTRACT
Like many other fields of medicine, varicose vein treatment in the 21st century has evolved and adopted more minimally invasive methods. Procedures once performed under general anesthesia in which patients were surgically opened to allow extirpation of organs or structures are being rapidly replaced by techniques that allow the treatment of damaged organ systems with the patient awake and ‘‘sealed’’ from the outside. This revolution has infused the specialty of phlebology with some marvelous new techniques. This chapter will discuss primary concepts and methods in which a patient’s damaged and improperly functioning axial vein is treated without requiring its physical removal.
