Vein Clinic Assessment

Vein Clinc Assessment

At Laser Away, your first visit with us is a consultation with our physician and vein care team. During the consultation, we will review your past medical history, review your current medications, discuss any symptoms, review your goals, and examine your legs.

You will find the consultations quite informative and you will have time to ask any questions that you might have about suggested treatments or about varicose veins and their management.

Please bring a pair of shorts or perhaps a skort so that we can properly assess your leg veins. In the event that you don’t own shorts, we usually have some shorts available.

After examining your legs, we may identify the need to do further assessment before we can treat. Some of the more common testing we might do include: vein mapping ultrasound, ankle-brachial indices (ABI), electrocardiogram (EKG), or chest x-ray. These are described below.

Following our vein clinic assessment, we will discuss treatment options with you and together we will determine the best treatment for your vein issues.

We see our care of your veins as a long term relationship. We aim to get your legs feeling and looking better so that you can enjoy your legs and life to the fullest. Vein treatments are not a cure. If you have vein problems today, even with our excellent care and management of your veins, you may develop new vein issues or recurrence in previously treated veins. If that happens, we are here for you as your partner in managing your veins.

We are strongly committed to preventing varicose veins. For that reason, we will have our staff who are all trained as Certified Fitters for compression stockings, measure your legs during your visit and review any options you might have for post-care compression therapy and for preventative compression therapy. Compression stockings are normally covered through most insurance plans. Our doctors will provide you with a prescription for the proper size and compression of stockings so that you may get your insurance coverage.

At the end of your appointment, we will likely book your vein mapping ultrasound (if required), plan for your first treatment date, and we can order any stockings required. We do not usually book your vein mapping ultrasound on the same day as the consultation but if you are from out of town, talk to our staff to see if we can do these on the same day.

Consultations are free. You can ask your family doctor or nurse practitioner to refer you to Dr Pinette at Laser Away or you can make your own appointment without a referral. We can send a consultation report to your practitioner if you wish.

Vein mapping ultrasound. Most commonly we might suggest a vein mapping exam. This is an ultrasound assessment where we map out any problematic areas including areas of reflux, damaged valves, perforating vessels and exclude any complications. This exam is usually done standing up and a colour Doppler ultrasound is used as we evaluate the flow within the veins. We will use this assessment to guide our treatment plan. This exam is not covered by Manitoba Health. We charge a one-time fee of $50 for this exam.

Ankle-brachial indices. We might order this test if we are concerned about the arterial blood flow in your legs. The test consists of taking blood pressures of the brachial (arm) and ankle (leg) and then using their values to determine if the blood flow is reduced or not. This test is covered by Manitoba Health and we usually refer to the vascular lab at Health Sciences Centre or Grace Hospital to have this test done.

Electrocardiogram. EKGs are commonly done to assess the heart. If we detect any concerns with the heart, hear a murmur, detect a heart rhythm irregularity, or if we are planning foam sclerotherapy or an endovenous procedure, we may order an EKG. EKG assessments for this purpose are covered by Manitoba Health and there are many providers in the city which we will direct you to.

Chest Xray. Chest Xrays are commonly done to assess the heart, chest, and lungs. If we detect any concerns with the heart or lungs, we may order a Chest Xray. Xray assessments for this purpose are covered by Manitoba Health and there are many providers in the city which we will direct you to.