Varicose veins are rarely absent from older legs.

Conventional surgical treatment is painful and intrusive, requiring an incision into the groin, plus multiple incisions in the legs.

However, a new laser procedure means only a tiny incision is needed. EndoVenous Laser Treatment (EVLT) is carried out under local anaesthetic and takes only two hours in hospital.

A woman who underwent the treatment, writes :

First, they measured me for the stocking they were going to put on my leg afterwards, which would minimise any bruising.

Once in theater, another ultrasound scan was done of my leg to find the best place to enter the vein. [The surgeon] marked the point with a surgical marker pen and I was given a local anaesthetic, so I couldn’t feel anything. Then I was placed on my side. [He] made a small incision, level with my knee, and threaded a guide wire and then the laser through my vein.

I couldn’t see what was happening as I had drapes over me. I was given a pair of goggles to protect my eyes from the laser, then the lights were switched off and the laser switched on. The procedure took just a few minutes. Then, when the vein was sealed, [the surgeon] switched the laser off. Lastly, he removed the wire containing the laser and put a sticky skin fastener over the incision.

I then got off the operating table and walked to the recovery bay. I’d arrived at 12.30pm and was ready to leave two hours later. Initially, my leg was numb, but feeling in it returned after an hour or so.

It’s easy to imagine a lot of demand for this new treatment.

One of the many symptoms of aging is that wounds and injuries take longer to heal. There are a number of reasons for this, and most people just accept is as a fact.

Blood Platelets

However, a medical breakthrough in the healing process may offer hope to the elderly that surgery won’t put them out of action for any longer than necessary or leave them open to infections.

A gel made from patients’ own blood cells is said to dramatically speed up the healing process after surgery. It’s claimed that the “DIY gel” could lower the risk of life-threatening hospital infections by dramatically shortening the recovery period.

The gel was tested on a small group of patients with startling results. Those who were treated with the gel had almost completely healed just two weeks after surgery in 80 percent of the cases. Only 50 percent of identical wounds treated with antibiotics had healed.

It’s known that deep surgical wounds are one of the main routes into the body for drug-resistant bacteria like MRSA, which usually lives harmlessly on the skin until the immune system weakens through illness or gets access to an open wound after an operation.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati tested the gel on a group of volunteers who had each been given two puncture wounds, one on each thigh. One wound was given two applications of the gel, the other a standard antibiotic ointment. After two weeks the rate of healing was much faster in those wounds treated with the gel.