Vascular Clinic Services in Singapore: A Focus on Minimally Invasive Procedures for Treating Vascular Conditions

The Vascular and Interventional Centre specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of a range of common and complex vascular conditions, providing advantages of the latest interventions.

Expertise at the centre focuses on preventing amputation, curbing dialysis access to prolonged viability, and expanding minimally invasive options in the field of vascular and other interventions.

Harboring well-furnished expertise, we work with you to help prevent vascular disease and support you through an individualized clinical journey. Our services aim to provide high-standard medical care.

The majority of people in our community are suffering from one or more common conditions. These conditions generally develop over time in your blood vessels.

Our services can provide you with a comprehensive diagnosis of your suffering and ways to look after yourself and support you in maintaining your physical and emotional health.

We aim to increase patients’ awareness and understanding of their vascular health. If any condition becomes trouble-free for a while, we would be pleased to assist you at every next juncture.

In cases of emergency, we assist the general public in private and medical facilities who may refer to us for intervention. The Vascular Clinic will not have inpatient beds.

Our focus is on diagnosis and advice, and we also provide outpatient care for patients who need specialist investigation or guidance.

During this time, a scan-based diagnosis has continued at the clinic for public patients who could benefit from early imaging. It is beyond any doubt that vascular diseases are posing an increasing burden on society.

Varicose veins surgery, such as vein stripping or endovenous laser treatment, removes or seals damaged veins to improve circulation and reduce symptoms.

Understanding Vascular Conditions and the Need for Specialized Treatment

Vascular conditions encompass a wide array of diseases affecting patients. These are often categorized into diseases of arteries and veins.

Arterial and venous symptoms can often include pain at rest, ulceration or ischemic wounds, muscle atrophy, and claudication, frequently with unique characteristics related to the specific disease process.

Common conditions include diseases of arteries and veins, where symptoms can vary in location, severity, and duration.

Arterial conditions such as aneurysmal disease, atherosclerotic disease, and fibromuscular dysplasia, to name a few, can result in an array of symptoms including stroke, lower extremity claudication, inaccessible pulses, variances in temperature, atrophic tissue, and numerous other systemic findings.

Even without symptoms, untreated vascular conditions have the ability to result in various complications including, but not limited to, limb amputation.

Due to the oftentimes complex nature of vascular diseases, each vascular clinic should have a dedicated team whose main purposes include precise diagnosis, providing advanced management, and preventing the recurrence of symptoms upon symptom resolution.

Part of vascular clinics is the vascular laboratory, where technologists trained in vascular physiology capture data for multiple different vascular conditions, including a comprehensive arterial and venous duplex ultrasound screen.

An integrated clinic and laboratory can help ensure the multidisciplinary team can care for all aspects of the vascular patient’s disease, often in the same clinic visit.

Thus, all symptoms and comorbidities can be managed in one visit. Dynamic changes in vascular disease continue to evolve as technology and endovascular thought evolve.

Early identification and risk factor modification are frequently the cornerstone of vascular management.

Different forms of intervention, including pharmacological and minimally invasive techniques, are applied depending on the patient’s coexisting diseases, physiologic profiles, and risks.

Personalized care in the modern endovascular era should result in improved quality of life and limb salvage.

Modern vascular centers are required to adapt and remain flexible and dynamic in the evolving nature of vascular treatment.

Varicose veins treatment includes options like compression therapy, sclerotherapy, and minimally invasive procedures to alleviate pain and improve appearance.

Varicose Veins

What are varicose veins and why are they so common? Varicose veins are enlarged, bulging veins that most often appear in the legs.

A physician specializing in vein care may define varicose veins as any vein with a diameter of three millimeters or greater.

This is nearly two times the diameter of a “regular” vein and is a significant enough change to cause unpleasant symptoms and appearance.

The legs are affected most frequently given that the surrounding structures – bones, skin, and veins – support less.

Our bodies are heavily veined, and the proximity of our veins is less cushioned as we move further and further from our chest (our “central” body).

What causes varicose veins to develop? Often, valve failure is the reason behind varicose veins. These one-way “flaps” occur frequently within the veins, directing flow back to the heart.

Despite their name, valves can fail. Unfortunately, once a leaky valve fails to close all the way, all the blood traveling to our feet stagnates where the valve is out of commission, pressuring the vein to expand like a balloon.

Over time, this can lead to pooling blood and cosmetic changes. The more of these faulty valves, the more extensive the symptoms.

Symptoms: Aching, swelling, itchiness, and restlessness are typical complaints concerning varicose veins. The veins are most noticeable as an aesthetic concern.

Many patients feel “self-conscious” at the discovery of their varicose veins, especially if they have accumulated in a very prominent location.

Occasionally, one may have signs of a more serious problem – swelling, a brown pigment, eczema, and an ulcer. Nonetheless, any age and gender can form varicose veins.

Varicose Veins Treatment Options

Although previously, varicose veins were mainly removed using various surgical methods, there are now non-surgical treatments using injections and specialized catheters.

These less invasive treatments, although they pose fewer risks than traditional surgery, can still result in significant side effects such as skin staining, nerve injury, or deep vein thrombosis.

Patients continue to have varicose veins after laser or radiofrequency ablation 5% and 10% of the time, respectively.

However, their symptoms, such as pain, swelling, cramping, heaviness in the legs, and skin changes, usually improve.

There are generally two types of treatments for varicose veins: those that permanently remove the veins and those that close the veins.

Factors involved in determining the choice of treatment include the need for a rapid return to activity, the presence of symptoms, varicose veins decreasing the quality of activity, aesthetic concerns, and venous clot.

The choice of treatment can be based on insurance requirements as well, but we try to tailor each treatment plan to the individual patient, adjusting for anatomic variations, severity of symptoms, and co-morbid conditions.

Most minimally invasive varicose vein treatments do not require significant time off work, and patients may resume regular activities within a few days.

Sclerotherapy is a common technique for smaller veins and spider veins, involving threading a small syringe with a very fine needle and injecting a solution that irritates the lining of the vein, causing it to collapse.

Sclerotherapy is effective and more versatile and may be used in combination with procedures that treat the large veins.

Multiple treatments may be necessary, and there can be a recurrence of the thread veins.

Endovenous Laser Therapy involves guiding a thin fiber or laser into the vein where it is fired, resulting in the vein contracting and closing up.

The procedure is performed under local anesthesia and requires a small nick in the skin. This fast, efficient treatment causes minimal discomfort.

The vein is slowly absorbed into the body after the laser has sealed it closed. Patient education is key to a good outcome.

Providers should explain why varicose vein treatment is needed, review the treatment options, and encourage their patients to get a second opinion if needed.

Vein specialists recommend deeply involving patients in shared decision-making because enthusiastic concordance can lead to higher success rates.