Do I Just Have to Live With Spider Veins?

While large, bulging, rope-like varicose veins can be a sign of a serious venous insufficiency, and can lead to rare but life-threatening conditions, spider veins affect the smallest veins in the body known as capillaries, and their failure leads to mere cosmetic irritations. Even though spider veins are harmless, you don’t have to put up with them.

At New Image Medical Spa in Fremont, California, Dr. Surinder Sandhu treats spider veins safely and effectively using a technique that has been around for nearly a century and that has been refined by modern medicine: sclerotherapy. This method can get rid of unsightly spider veins and restore your skin’s youthful, clear appearance.

Spider veins 101

Veins are designed to send blood in one direction. Each vein has one-way valves at intersections, allowing blood to travel back to the heart. When a valve is damaged, blood can leak back and cause the blood vessel to dilate and become visible through the skin. These broken blood vessels are known as spider veins or varicose veins, depending on the size of the vein.

Certain people run a higher risk of valve damage in their veins. Some factors that can increase your risk of spider veins include:

• Aging
• Having family members with spider or varicose veins
• Pregnancy or menopause
• Being overweight or obese
• Working a job that requires long periods of standing

Venous insufficiency in the smaller veins causes it to become more visible through the skin, looking like a red or purple squiggle, but usually the skin around it is flat and there is no itching, burning, pain, or heat around the veins as compared with larger varicose veins. 

Sclerotherapy for spider veins

Sclerotherapy is a minimally invasive procedure that gets rid of unsightly veins. Your treatment usually takes less than 30 minutes depending on how many veins need to be treated. Dr. Sandhu makes sure you’re reclining comfortably, and she uses an extremely fine needle to inject a sclerosing agent into the damaged vein or veins.

The injected solution does microscopic damage to the inside of the already compromised vein, causing it to collapse and seal shut. The blood flow is automatically diverted into nearby healthier capillaries. Over the following weeks, the collapsed vein disintegrates and your body treats it like natural waste, flushing it safely away through your lymphatic system. 

You don’t just have to live with spider veins. To learn more about spider veins or sclerotherapy, contact our offices for a consultation. You can reach us at 510-269-2960 or request an appointment online today.