Spider Veins

Carmen Laronn, MD

Spider veins are small red, purple or blue just below the surface of the skin. They may appear isolated, linear, or in groups (web like appearance). They may be genetic, hormonal, or environmental photo damage. Trauma and activities requiring long standing or sitting may also contribute to vein conditions.

Spider veins are most commonly seen on legs and face. Women are more likely to develop these problems than men. Most of spider veins are cosmetic and may cause tenderness, itching and sometime heaviness and cramping. When they develop on the face they may cause flushing, sensitivity to sunlight or skin products and uneven texture and color of the skin. Read more below about Denver Spider Veins Treatment.

Treatments:
Sclerotherapy
Sclerotherapy is a non-surgical technique that is used to close medium sized veins, spider veins or broken capillaries. These veins are common on the thighs or leg but may also be seen on the face or body.

How It Works
A tiny needle is used to introduce the scloerosing agent into the vein. The agent displaces the blood in the vein and irritates the inside lining into itself. Your body then absorbs it and it disappears. A typical treatment takes from 20–40 minutes and includes multiple injections. There are a number of different “sclerosing agents” that can be used in many different concentrations that vary on the type of vein.

A couple of treatments may be needed for best results. Most veins are completely gone in two weeks to two months.

Costs & Recovery Time
Because the needles used are so tiny, there is little discomfort involved and there is only 2–3 weeks recovery time needed. Costs range from $100–$265 depending on the number of areas involved, the size and the number of veins.

IPL and Vascular Lasers
“Light that Treats” Non-invasive, state of the art technology uses pulses of light to eliminate varicose and spider veins on the body, face and extremities without injections or surgery. This patented technology allows your physician to customize treatment specifically for the size and depth of the veins as well as for your skin type. This flexible interactive approach cannot be achieved by any other non-invasive method currently available.

How They Work
IPL laser treatments are done with a non-invasive medical system that uses intense pulsed light therapy to reduce or eliminate skin redness, spider veins, sun damage, age spots, brown spots and more. It can treat the full face, neck, chest and even the hands.

It treats both vascular and pigmented lesions. Vascular lesions are abnormal blood vessels close to the skin’s surface that give the skin a reddish color. Pigmented lesions are brown spots caused by an excess of melanin (the dark pigment in the skin). The light energy causes the tiny spider or other veins that cause redness of the skin to shrink and be absorbed by your body. The intensity and area these treatments cover can be controlled by your physician. The redness from rosacea can be reduced as much as 80%.

For clustered wide spread areas, these treatments are done in a series of 3–6 treatments. One to 3 treatments are usually needed for isolated areas.

Costs & Recovery Time
You will see results after your second or third treatment and usually have no downtime. This is one of the so called “lunchtime” procedures – it can take 30 minutes.

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