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Get Rid of Your Spider Veins This Year with Sclerotherapy

Nov 02, 2024
Get Rid of Your Spider Veins This Year with Sclerotherapy
Sclerotherapy is the gold-standard solution for lower extremity spider veins. Here’s how this minimally invasive, maximally effective vein clearance treatment can eliminate your unwanted spider veins in no time flat.

You’re tired of seeing sprawling, scraggly spider vein lines along your thigh, behind your knee, or down your calf — but what can you do about these dark red, blue, or purple webs of visible vascular damage? Our board-certified vascular specialists can help. 

With six offices located across Michigan, Advanced Vascular Surgery provides a full scope of minimally invasive treatment options to address damaged veins, including sclerotherapy — the gold-standard solution for lower extremity telangiectasias, or spider veins. 

Let’s take a closer look at why spider veins develop and how sclerotherapy works to clear them from your skin in no time flat. 

Spider “veins” are actually damaged capillaries 

Most people see some type of visible vein damage on their legs as they get older: One in four adults (23%) has varicose veins, and over four in five adults (80%-85%) have sprawling, web-like networks of smaller reticular and spider vein telangiectasias. 

What they are

Spider veins develop when capillaries, a group of small blood vessels beneath the skin, become abnormally dilated. When vascular strain, damage, or dysfunction causes these networks to swell and contort, spider vein “webs” appear.

How they develop

Capillaries are like fine branches at the end of larger surface veins. These veins contain one-way valves designed to keep blood flowing toward your heart. Increased pressure on your leg vein valves makes them more susceptible to damage. This can lead to:  

  • Slower circulation in the damaged area
  • Blood pooling behind weakened valves
  • Pressure on the surrounding vessel wall
  • Venous dilation (varicose vein damage) 

Capillaries are like fine branches connected to larger surface veins. When a large vein is damaged — even if that damage isn’t yet visible — its connected capillaries can dilate, too, forming visible spider veins as a result.

Risk factors 

Various factors can play a role in spider vein emergence, ranging from gender and age to body weight and physical activity level. You’re more likely to sustain vein damage if:

  • You’re older and/or female
  • Spider veins run in your family
  • You’re overweight or obese
  • You’ve ever been pregnant 
  • You’re frequently on your feet
  • You lead a sedentary lifestyle

The more vein damage risk factors you have, the more likely you are to get varicose veins and/or spider veins on your lower extremities. 

How sclerotherapy works to erase spider veins 

Sclerotherapy is the gold-standard treatment for lower extremity spider veins. This simple, go-to solution is minimally invasive and maximally effective: Just a few tiny injections of an FDA-approved sclerosing agent can make your spider veins disappear for good. 

Before treatment

Also known as chemical ablation, sclerotherapy is a painless procedure that starts with the application of a topical anesthetic to numb the predetermined injection sites.

The procedure 

Next, we inject the sclerosing agent into the damaged vessels. With just a few tiny, gentle needle sticks, this chemical agent enters the targeted spider vein web and:

  • Irritates the surrounding vessel walls
  • Forces the vessel to collapse inward
  • Causes the vessel to seal itself closed

The treated spider vein network gradually fades away as your blood flow reroutes itself to healthy nearby veins. The remaining sclerosing agent disperses in your bloodstream and gets flushed away by your lymphatic system.

After sclerotherapy

After your sclerotherapy treatment, we cover the injection sites with bandages. You can resume most normal activities right away, apart from vigorous exercise, which you should avoid for one week, and long-distance travel, which you should avoid for a month. 

Daily walks and wearing a compression garment for a couple of weeks provide a “vascular assist” that improves lower extremity circulation and supports better vein health.  

Easy, minimally invasive spider vein clearance

For most people, spider vein clearance is a gradual process that takes a few days — and in some cases, up to two weeks — after a sclerotherapy treatment. Unlike larger varicose veins, most spider veins disappear after just one chemical ablation session.  

Ready to banish unwanted spider veins? We can help. Call or click online today to schedule an evaluation at your nearest Advanced Vascular Surgery office in Kalamazoo, Allegan, Battle Creek, Coldwater, Sturgis, or Three Rivers, Michigan.