Varicose vein stripping and ligation surgery 

General anaesthetic
As with all operations carried out under general anaesthetic, there are risks. However, varicose vein removal is a short operation, so anaesthetic complications are rare.

Cardiac and respiratory complications are commoner in elderly patients and patients with established heart and breathing problems (1).

Bleeding
As the varicose vein operation directly removes blood vessels, bleeding can and does occur.

Although rare, heavy bleeding (haemorrhage) can happen during surgery if damage to other major veins or arteries happens when the varicose veins are removed, but again this is uncommon (2).

After the operation blood can pool in the wound. Depending on how much blood is present this may need revision surgery. However, this may settle on its own without the need for further surgery.

Infection
Another risk of any surgery is infection of your wound, but again this is commoner in longer procedures and in those patients who have existing infected leg ulcers.

Even if there is no infection, the operation sight may become inflamed due to an allergic reaction to the sutures used to close the wound (3).

Nerve damage
Nerve damage can also occur and is sometimes difficult to avoid when removing varicose veins. If this happens, you may experience numbness or other sensations around the surgical site or along the leg where the veins were removed (4).

Deep vein thrombosis
A very rare but serious complication of varicose vein removal is deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

If a blood clot is dislodged from the leg veins during surgery, then it can move along the circulatory system to the lungs. The result can be a heart attack (myocardial infarction) (5).

References:
1) Stone & Doherty
Anaesthesia for elderly patients
Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine Vol 8, Issue 9, (Sep 2007), pp 361-364
2) Campbell
Clinical review - Varicose veins and their management
British Medical Journal (Aug 5 2006); 333: pp 287-292
DOI:10.1136/bmj.333.7562.287
3) Hirsemann, Sohr & Gastmeier
Risk factors for surgical site infections in a free-standing outpatient setting
American Journal of Infection Control (2005), Vol 33, Issue 1, pp 6-10
4) Giannas, Bayat & Watson
Common Peroneal Nerve Injury During Varicose Vein Operation
European Journal of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery (2006) Vol 31, Issue 4, pp 443-445
5) Bhogal & Nyamekye
Should All Patients Undergo Postoperative Duplex Imaging to Detect a Deep Vein Thrombosis After Varicose Vein Surgery?
Journal World Journal of Surgery Vol 32; No' 2 (Feb 2008); pp 237-240
ISSN: 0364-2313 (Print) 1432-2323 (Online)
DOI: 10.1007/s00268-007-9302-1