Sclerotherapy is a safe and effective treatment option for patients
who suffer from painful and unsightly vein issues.
How Does Sclerotherapy Treatment Work?
Sclerotherapy treatment has three steps to its process.
- The skin is first sterilized to allow tiny needles to inject sclerotherapy medication. The medication is injected into the spider veins found on the surface of your skin.
- A heavier, more concentrated foam version of sclerotherapy medication is injected into the underlying green veins that feed spider veins.
- A transilluminating vein light is used to further locate veins on the skin’s surface. Skin and fat layers glow orange under the vein light while the underlying feeding green veins show up as contrasting dark lines.
How Long Does Treatment Take?
Treatment time depends on the patient’s specifics needs, but on average, it takes fifteen to thirty minutes to perform a sclerotherapy treatment. Some treatments can take up to an hour.
How Will Sclerotherapy Affect Me?
It’s generally expected that 70 percent of abnormal veins will be cleared away after each treatment. Multiple factors can contribute to how sclerotherapy treatments will affect you personally, including the severity of your vein disease, your age, and your state of health.
How Many Treatments Will It Take?
Three to six treatments are typically required to remove spider veins. Each treatment builds on the last. If you’re older in age and have allowed spider veins to increase over the years, you’ll likely need more treatments than a patient who is only beginning to see signs of spider veins. Severity of disease and your state of health also help determine the number of treatments you’ll need.
The ideal time between treatment sessions is four to eight weeks. It’s important that your body has time to re-route the flow of blood to healthy veins. Also during this time, stress will be relieved from the vein system and any bruising or inflammation will have sufficient time to clear.
When Will I See the Effects?
Patients usually notice about a 90 percent clearing of spider veins after three sclerotherapy sessions. Three further treatments can increase the benefit to 98 percent. These percentages also apply to those with severe spider vein issues.
Can I Just Have the Smaller Veins Removed?
Many patients think they’ll save time and discomfort by getting only some of their veins removed, but removing small veins before removing the largest veins will only cause the smaller veins to return. Improper sequence of vein removal can actually worsen the issue in some situations. Unfortunately, many doctors do not heed this recommendation. An experienced and credible vein specialist will treat the source of your spider veins to minimize any risk of the problem returning.
If you would like to learn more about sclerotherapy treatments
call Midwest Vein Care to schedule a consultation.