Varicose veins can be glued shut 'in an hour' Newer methods include laser and radiofrequency therapy, which both heat up the veins to such an extent that they become gummed shut. Dr Rodney Raabe, from US firm Sapheon which came up with the method, believed VenaSeal was better because there was "no need for local anaesthetic to be administered the full-length of the vein to reduce any pain." Results of a small-scale trial on 38 people, presented last summer at a medical conference in Slovenia, were promising. When volunteers were followed up six months later, two had veins that had opened up again, and two had minor skin reactions. Now a Europe-wide study on 120 patients is being led by specialists at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College, London. Professor Alun Davies, who has helped treat 12 patients at Charing Cross Hospital in London, said: "It does seem to work. So far it has been very straightforward and all the patients have been fine. One had a complication of inflammation on the skin but that soon settled down. However, these are very early results, and how it will compare with other procedures longer-term is difficult to tell. Peter Bryant, 73, a taxi driver, became the first patient in Britain to undergo the procedure in March. He said: "The whole visit was over in an hour and I walked out feeling absolutely fine with just very slight bruising that soon disappeared. It was absolutely wonderful. I've had no cellulitis since and my varicose vein is gone. However, Ian Loftus, a consultant vascular surgeon at St George's Hospital in south London, urged caution. He said: "There are lots of new treatments at the moment and we have very good trial data on the effectiveness of laser and radiofrequency treatment. These data on glueing are very early, and we need to see more studies. It's much too early to be saying that this is a new miracle cure. Long-term results would have to be very good indeed to convince him to switch from his preferred method of radiofrequency treatment, he added.