Harvard Trained Vein Doctor | Is Spider Vein Treatment Dangerous? Vein Doctor Answers

Is Spider Vein Treatment Dangerous?

Are you currently suffering from spider veins? Do you have large and dense clusters of blood vessels on the surface of the skin on your legs? Do these blood vessels look sort of like spider webs or like the branches of trees?

If so, you have nothing to worry about. Spider veins are a common condition and they affect at least 50% of all women at some point in their lives. However, while there’s nothing to worry about, you also shouldn’t take it lightly and should seek spider vein treatment soon.

You need spider vein treatment because spider veins lead to extremely self-consciousness and social anxiety and because spider veins are often indicative of a dangerous underlying condition known as chronic venous insufficiency.

However, when people think of spider veins treatment, they think the procedure may be dangerous. To put it simply — no, spider vein treatment is not dangerous, in fact, it’s extremely simple, minimally-invasive, and safe.

In this article, we discuss what are spider veins, are spider veins dangerous, and how to treat spider veins.

What are Spider Veins?

Spider veins are dense clusters of blood vessels. They are essentially veins with accumulated blood, which is why they appear prominently on the surface of the skin. Spider veins are medically known as telangiectasia, but they are given the name “spider veins” because they look like spider webs or the thin spindly legs of arachnids.

Are Spider Veins Dangerous?

Spider veins aren’t dangerous in and of themselves — at most, they lead to self-consciousness and social anxiety. However, spider veins are often indicative of an underlying condition known as chronic venous insufficiency.

Venous insufficiency is a circulatory disorder in which your vein valves — generally responsible for smooth blood circulation to the heart — collapse. When these vein valves fail, there’s no mechanism in place to prevent your blood from flowing back down due to gravity. As such, blood accumulates in your leg veins and gradually applies pressure on the vein walls, leading to vein dilation. Over time, your leg veins expand outwards in the form of spider veins and varicose veins.

While spider veins themselves aren’t dangerous at all, venous insufficiency is an extremely dangerous condition. If left untreated venous insufficiency can lead to the following issues.

• Initial Signs of Vein Disease: Initially, you’ll suffer from leg heaviness, restless leg syndrome, and frequent leg cramps. These symptoms will generally get worse during the end of the day or after long periods of sitting or standing, i.e., when a lot of blood has accumulated in your veins. These initial warning signs are often mistaken for signs of aging, which is why vein disease is extremely underreported and under-diagnosed.
• Profuse Bleeding: Varicose veins are essentially dilated blood vessels with excess blood. As such, the tiniest of scratches and bumps can burst them, which will lead to profuse bleeding and you’ll have to be taken to an emergency room.
• Skin Disease: Your skin will get red, scaly, and develop a patchy appearance.
• Skin Discoloration: Your skin will get discolored due to the lack of blood circulation in your legs.
• Leg Ulcers: Due to the lack of blood circulation, your wounds won’t heal effectively and you’ll develop non-healing wounds on your legs.
• Deep Vein Thrombosis: The accumulated blood in your veins may clot and eventually get carried to the lungs, which may induce a potentially-lethal condition known as pulmonary embolism.

As you can see, spider veins may not be dangerous in and of themselves, but you still need to treat them and diagnose the underlying root cause because vein disease is extremely dangerous.

Sclerotherapy Spider Vein Treatment

Sclerotherapy is the best spider vein treatment available and it has been around for decades. During this procedure, the vein doctor injects a medicine called sclerosant into your spider veins. This medicine reacts with the vein walls and fuses them, essentially turning them into scar tissues. The accumulated blood reroutes to healthier veins and the hardened scar tissues gradually get absorbed by the body.

Is Sclerotherapy Dangerous?

Sclerotherapy is a minimally-invasive and non-surgical procedure with a negligible risk of side effects. You may, at most, experience some temporary bruising.

However, sclerotherapy isn’t usually recommended for spider veins on the face or feet because these areas are dense with venous-arterial connections and injecting sclerosant into the arteries can be harmful.

What about Laser Treatment for Spider Veins?

Laser treatment is often recommended as an alternative to sclerotherapy. However, laser treatment is an extremely ineffective procedure that’s only used in medical spas and not as an actual treatment. This procedure involves the use of blue light to slowly make your spider veins disintegrate. You have to go for several sessions over multiple months before you see any results.

Laser treatment is only ever favored over sclerotherapy when it comes to spider veins on the face or feet because of the aforementioned reasons.

Which Procedure Treats Varicose Veins?

If you’re suffering from varicose veins — or spider veins with underlying vein disease — then the best vein treatments are radiofrequency ablation, endovenous laser ablation, and venaseal. These procedures destroy or close down the problematic saphenous vein, thereby treating the root cause of spider veins and varicose veins.

Schedule an Appointment with Board Certified Vein Doctor Today

VIP Medical Group is a collective of the best vein doctors and vein clinics in the country. We have board-certified vein doctors who can diagnose the root cause of your spider veins and treat it using minimally invasive procedures with no pain or discomfort. For more information, please schedule an appointment with a board-certified vein doctor near you today.