Article: Laser Treatment Erases Varicose Veins

Teresa Maruna is on her feet all day in her job as a kidney dialysis technician, so her legs would feel tired in any case. But sometimes the pain would become excruciating, she said, and her ankles would swell to the point that they "seemed not to be ankles anymore."

Maruna, of Lakeville, Minn., is among nearly 40 million Americans with vein disease. Over the years, treatment progressed from putting your feet up, to wearing support hose, to vein stripping (removing the enlarged vein). Now, less-invasive treatments are available, notably a laser technique that causes the vein to scar, collapse and be reabsorbed into the body.

"A varicose vein," said Tim Goertzen, a radiologist at a vein ...