A novel ultrasound-triggered approach to poloxamer gelation for chronic venous disease

Foam sclerotherapy is a minimally invasive approach for varicose vein treatments. However, despite its clinical value and widespread use, it may cause a few unwanted systemic complications. Recently, an ethanol-based gel has been used successfully and safely for the treatment of vascular malformations. To generate such a gel, we propose the use of focused ultrasound to cause gelling of a thermosensitive polymer for the treatment of varicose veins.