PATIENTS can now avoid a lengthy wait for routine treatment on swollen and enlarged veins at Musgrove Park Hospital with a new room for procedures.
The condition, known as varicose veins, usually occurs on a patient’s legs or feet, and is treated by vascular surgeons using a variety of procedures, including endothermal ablation, foam sclerotherapy, as well as some minor surgery within an operating theatre.
The endothermal ablation procedure involves threading a small heating fibre into the vein, surrounded by local anaesthesia, which leads to the vein eventually disappearing from the surface of the skin.
Foam sclerotherapy is usually carried out without need for any anaesthesia, where a surgeon injects foam into the affected vein, through fine needles guided by an ultrasound.
Colleagues in the hospital’s vascular department have worked to create a new treatment room over the last two years, so that these relatively straightforward procedures can be carried out in an outpatient setting, rather than taking up a theatre slot.
So far the room has been used to treat well over 100 patients, who’ve also been able to return home the same day as their procedure – usually within a matter of hours.
Karen Rayson, a vascular nurse specialist at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We’ve been doing foam sclerotherapy procedures in this new treatment room for about 18 months, and we quickly followed this by adding the endothermal ablation procedure too.
“By moving to our new clinic room in the vascular department, we’ve been able to free up a whole operating list in our day surgery centre for other procedures, which can only help to reduce waiting times across the board.
“Instead of all the lengthy pre-theatre checks, our patients can now arrive just 30 minutes before their procedure, have their treatment under a local anaesthetic, followed by a quick recovery, perhaps a cup of tea, and they’re generally back home within a few hours!
“One of the main benefits of this to patients is the continuity of care, as they see the same colleagues during their treatment, and it’s a less stressful environment too.
“By using our own procedure room we’re not affected by any potential delays elsewhere in the hospital and we can be a lot more flexible too.”
Mr Andrew Stewart, a consultant vascular surgeon at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Many of our patients with varicose veins have an underlying condition – usually a leg ulcer, where the wound doesn’t heal properly.
“This requires the care of specialist nurses, and our hospital and community services colleagues work together to identify those patients who’d most likely benefit from this procedure much quicker.
“This is why when we moved into our new vascular department following the demolition of parts of the hospital’s Old Building in readiness for the new surgical centre, we wanted to think creatively about the type of procedures we might be able to offer.
“Although the keyhole foam sclerotherapy procedure was possible, we didn’t have an outpatient facility at MPH to be able to offer it to patients under local anaesthetic, so we had to perform it in our operating theatres, with more patients still having general anaesthetic.
“This was something we were keen to address when we moved, so we could maximise the number of patients we could treat under local anaesthetic.
“More often than not our operating theatres have a specific anaesthetist allocated to them, so performing these procedures may not have been a good use of their time, but now our surgeons can perform it using a local anaesthetic block.
“Overall it’s great news for our patients, colleagues and the hospital as a whole, as we’ve managed to free up space in our operating theatres for emergency and other planned operations.”
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