What is the best treatment for Spider Veins? Spider veins are small (less than 5mm diameter) capillary veins which are easily visible through the skin, appearing as tiny webs of red, blue, or purple lines.
What are the treatment options for spider veins?
Surface injections: a very small gauge needle injecting a schlerosant solution that closes the vein from within (surface sclerotherapy)
Laser treatment: a focused beam of light of one wavelength that coagulates the blood in the vessel
Radiofrequency treatment: a tiny needle tip touching the skin and transmitting a RF pulse (Vein Gogh treatment)
When are surface vein injections better? (Surface schlerotherapy)
Surface schlerotherapy is the oldest treatment for spider veins but still the best. The benefits of treating these small veins via injection are that with a single entry point often a large arborisation (“tree shape”) of the vein can be treated as the solution spreads out inside the vein. Both legs and multiple veins can be treated in one session. Another benefit is that feeder veins – slightly larger veins that are refluxing (back flowing) into the surface veins can also be targeted. These veins are too large to treat effectively with laser or RF treatment, and if left untreated will cause the treatment of surface spider veins to fail (as back flowing pressure reopens the surface veins). At Geelong Veins, Skin and Laser we use all treatment modalities, but find surface schlerotherapy gives the most effective results.
When is laser or radiofrequency treatment better?
Both laser and RF treatments can treat very fine spider veins. These treatments are our preference in patients who are pregnant or breastfeeding and require treatment. They can also safely be used for patients who have allergies to the schlerosant solution or medical contraindications. Some people have a preference for laser/RF treatment as they are needle phobic or concerned by pain, however in practice these treatments tend to cause a similar or greater amount of pain than surface injections.
How do I find out what is the best treatment for my leg veins?
Booking a consultation with myself, Dr. Barbra Ward, at Geelong Veins, Skin and Laser is the best way to have all your questions answered and a thorough assessment of your veins.
Some patients have only spider veins, others have a combination of spider veins, reticular veins, and varicose veins. The reason that patients develop these types of “extra” veins is that there is venous reflux of some sort. What is venous reflux? It means that the veins that usually allow blood to flow in one direction (back to the heart), are malfunctioning and allowing blood to flow back down towards the feet. This means blood pools in the veins under pressure and creates “varicose veins” and “spider veins.”
Determining the optimal treatment for the different types of veins that form on your legs requires a thorough assessment of all of the veins in your legs. If this is not done, and the root cause of your veins is not treated appropriately, you are destined to have failure of therapy. You could end up having multiple treatments that are unsuccessful. This is why it is important to have your veins assessed by a doctor and checked with ultrasound prior to embarking on any vein treatments, and that the right treatment modality is selected for your individual needs.