What are Spider Veins and Vascular Lesions?
Causes of Spider Veins and Vascular Lesions
In treating spider veins, it is important to understand the different treatment options available. Sclerotherapy is one option, and lasers are another.
Sclerotherapy consists of injecting a liquid directly into the spider veins, which results in the veins contracting and consequently collapsing. Since the injections are administered with a very small needle, sclerotherapy is primarily suited for medium or large spider veins. Sclerotherapy produces significant discomfort and the treatment area may appear bruised following the treatment. The treatment can last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, depending on the number of spider veins being treated. To achieve desired results, multiple treatments are required at 30-60 day intervals. Some spider veins, however, are difficult to treat with Sclerotherapy.
The alternative to sclerotherapy is laser spider vein treatment. When opting for this treatment course, a laser is applied directly to the surface of the skin above the patient’s spider veins. The heat energy from the laser causes the small veins to coagulate and collapse, resulting in their elimination. Lasers are highly effective at treating small as well as medium sized spider veins. For our patients that have had both procedures, they describe the sclerotherapy injections as being more painful than lasers. Multiple laser treatments may be needed for complete spider vein clearance, but some veins will disappear after a single treatment. Follow up treatments are performed 45 days after the initial treatment, if needed.
One other point that differentiates laser spider vein removal from sclerotherapy is hemosiderin staining. Sclerotherapy can cause this brown discoloration to occur following injections, especially in medium to darker skin types. Laser treatments do not cause this same side effect and in fact, hemosiderin staining caused by sclerotherapy is something patients can actually reverse with lasers.
Spider Veins on the Face
Patients seeking to eliminate facial spider veins will most often opt for laser treatment. Sclerotherapy is difficult to perform on the small blood vessels in the face whereas laser treatments work very easily in this area. One to three laser treatments may be needed to see desired results, but most often, many of the veins will be gone immediately after the first treatment. The application of makeup can easily and effectively conceal any after-effects following the laser treatments.
If you are bothered by unsightly spider veins and wish to have them treated, contact us for a free consultation. We will carefully explain the available treatment options and evaluate your condition to give you a treatment recommendation.
Contact us today to schedule a FREE Spider Vein Removal consultation!