Survey of progress and satisfaction for treatment cases from 10 years ago.doctor-blog

To check long-term satisfaction of our patients regarding their day treatment of varicose vein, we conducted an anonymous questionnaire via postal mail. So far, our main participants have been patients who had treatments half a year to one year ago. However, recently, we extended our reach to patients with 8 to10 years since their treatment, which yielded ground-breaking information.

There were 263 survey participants, each of them having undergone our day stripping treatment between Oct. 2000 and Dec. 2003 – over 10 years ago! In addition, there were 55 participants who underwent day endvenous laser treatment between Jul. to Dec. 2005 – over 8 years ago. The laser used for their stripping treatment was the 1320nm wavelength model.

Surveys indicate that 80% of patients having received stripping treatment and 90% of patients who underwent endvenous laser treatment are satisfied with their treatments today. I would like to take this opportunity and thank all of the participants of the survey. We will continue to gather and examine customer feedback to maintain high patient satisfaction.

Every time a satisfaction survey is conducted, I become overwhelmed with uneasiness and expectations when I think about the evaluations of my work. In the past, there have been other reports that indicate the recurrence rates for long-term examples of traditional stripping treatment (with hospitalization) range from 40 to 60 %. I console myself that the satisfaction rates mentioned above are not too bad. However, it is true that some patients ultimately were not satisfied with their post-treatment progress. It reinforced my understanding that it is important for us to actively provide aftercare to such patients. One of the reasons why we could not get satisfaction from those patients is that they do not get enough information about post-treatment care from us. Although post-treatment recovery generally progresses smoothly, sometimes symptoms of varicose vein can persist or even recur. Therefore, it is important to continue with regular aftercare (e.g. sclerotherapy – a hardening treatment for remaining varicose vein). Most of those with lower satisfaction ratings are the ones that did not continue with aftercare and follow-up treatments as planned. It is highly recommended that former patients consult a doctor regularly for 1 to 3 years after treatment – especially for those who observe worrisome symptom.

Also, even for patients whose recovery progressed smoothly and without observable symptoms, we welcome them to come see us again. Especially those with long periods of progress since endvenous laser treatment, these case provide some of the most valuable medical information. I would like to evaluate such cases from an objective, medical point of view.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to those who have undergone treatment at our clinic with faith during times when we did not yet have any long-term progress examples of day radical treatment.