Sclerotherapy is a popular choice for spider and varicose vein issues since it costs less than surgery, requires no stressful or time-consuming hospital stay, has easy and unobtrusive post-treatment care, and enables an immediate return to work and daily activities in most cases.
Sclerotherapy is prescribed most often for spider veins and smaller varicose veins that, generally, do not cause any additional health issues. It may be also be an alternative treatment for larger varicose veins. It is a minimally invasive procedure which can be completed without the need for anesthesia and performed in one of our many vein treatment centers in New Jersey.
There are many different types of sclerotherapy treatments available for the removal of varicose and spider veins, and injection sclerotherapy is by far the most popular way to treat spider veins, reticular veins, and even some varicose veins.
All of these options can be discussed with your doctor during consultation. One of the most important questions we get is: what should I expect after the treatment?
When we perform injections for spider veins, our goal is to have the veins become invisible, or at least, blend in with the surrounding skin so they are less visible. This happens because the medicine used for sclerotherapy causes the vein to coagulate and its sides to stick shut, so that blood no longer flows through it. In some cases, especially with small spider veins, the vein can disappear within a week or two. But the larger the vein is, the longer it will take to go through that process and cause it to disappear.
Spider veins which are large, well-developed, and purple in appearance can take much more time to resolve, especially when there is blood retained in the vein after treatment. We use compression to help this blood (clot) to disappear sooner. These are not the dangerous sort of blood clots, but they can be raised, blackish in appearance, tender and unsightly.
The same issue can also happen when treating reticular veins (the greenish veins under the skin). It requires special treatment to drain them, so that the body can reabsorb them quickly. This process can take just a few weeks, rather than in the months it would otherwise take.
All sclerotherapy requires elastic compression, as mentioned previously, after treatment. Doing this helps to promote the collapse of the treated vein and emptying it of blood. Again, the time that is needed varies, depending on how large the treated vein is.
In the scheme of things, the post treatment time is small in relation to doing nothing at all and suffering through painful and unsightly legs. Schedule a consultation today. As most of our patients acknowledge, you’ll wonder why you waited so long!
Learn more about Dr. Mark Moritz.