Is vein stripping surgery dangerous?

Pain mostly: There are better options than stripping in some cases. Laser or rf ablation is less painful and can be cosmetically better. Bruising and bleeding are common but not generally life threatening. Also common is a need to treat left over varicose veins after the first stripping. Laser and rf have the same issue. Deep blood clots are unusual but possible.

Better options.: Vein stripping was the procedure for varicose vein removal up until about 15 years ago. Now the standard of care for varicose veins would be venous ultrasound of the veins followed by catheter closure of the malfunctioning vein valves. Stripping is painful and associated with significant downtime. Closure is an office procedure done under local anesthesia.See a vein specialist for an evaluation.

Not especially.: Although not particularly risky, saphenous vein stripping and classic excision of varicose veins require larger incisions and are generally less cosmetically pleasing compared to ablation methods combined with phlebectomy and/or sclerotherapy. Also, it depends somewhat on technique and the particular patient but, on the average, newer methods have faster recovery times.

Vein Stripping: Vein stripping is a surgery that requires general anesthesia. Several incisions are made along the length of the vein to remove pieces of it, not allowing blood to flow through it. There is more risk with this compared to newer, less invasive procedures. These risk are use of general anesthesia, more sites that can potentially bleed or get infected, nerve damage compared to laser or radiofrequency