Spider Vein Treatment

Spider veins are basically small unsightly veins which appear near the skin’s surface. They can appear blue, red or in any shade of purple. Sometimes they appear as single veins separated from all over the surface, or in a number of clusters. These veins usually appear in the legs and in the face. There are mainly three treatments avenues available for spider veins. They are as follows:

Sclerotherapy

Sclerotherapy is basically a process of injecting spider veins along with a compound which causes them to get dissolved and collapsed, and then the veins are moved towards the skin’s surface and are sloughed off by the body. In this treatment, bruises might appear and the coloration of the veins may worsen for a few weeks.

The results of this treatment may appear after a month or longer to be fully evident. After the results are attained, those particular veins will be gone forever. On the other hand, new veins continue to grow all the time, which prevents vein treatment from being permanent.

Electrodesication

In this treatment, electrical current is given to the spider veins, leading them to close, swell and die. The main drawback of this treatment is that it can leave marks from the damage electricity done to the skin.

Photo-rejuvenation

There are numerous photo-rejuvenation techniques which can be utilized for the treatment of spider veins. These consist of broadband light (BBL) and intense pulsed light (IPL) treatments. These treatments make use of a process known as selective photothermolysis for destroying unsightly spider veins.

In this process, the light which is applied to the skin goes deep inside the veins, which absorbs the energy of light, turning out to be heated and destroyed. Then the veins are moved towards the surface and are discarded from the body as in Sclerotherapy. Lasers are not considered as good for vein treatment because cosmetic lasers are emitted in the red spectrum, which is inadequately absorbed by the veins.

How permanent is vein therapy?

Vein therapy gives long-lasting lessening of spider veins. All treatments give 50 to 90 percent reduction is spider veins which can be everlasting. However, as long as any underlying conditions which can contribute to spider veins consisting of obesity, pregnancy and high blood pressure continue, spider veins are likely to get returned. The rate at which they come back depends on the individual, but it is generally measured in years.