How Much does Sclerotherapy Vein Treatment Cost?
Sclerotherapy is widely considered to be one of the most effective methods to treat spider veins. It’s a simple minimally invasive procedure in which the vein doctor treats the surface veins using a specific medicine.
If you have spider veins, it’s possible that you’re really self-conscious about your legs. Spider veins spread across your legs in the form of dense red clusters of blood vessels that resemble spider webs. It’s extremely common and affects at least 50% of all women and 30% of all men at some point in their lives. People who suffer from spider veins often get reclusive and develop social anxiety because they don’t feel comfortable going into situations where their legs will be revealed, such as the beach.
In addition to causing self-consciousness and social anxiety, spider veins can also be physically dangerous. In some cases, spider veins are a mere symptom of a more serious circulatory disorder known as chronic venous insufficiency. This is a condition in which the valves in your veins malfunction, which makes them incapable of facilitating smooth blood circulation to the heart. As a result, blood pools around the leg veins and applies pressure on your leg veins, leading to spider veins. Venous insufficiency is a chronic condition — if left untreated, it can lead to varicose veins, profuse bleeding, leg ulcers, deep vein thrombosis, and so much more.
Sclerotherapy is one of the best methods to treat spider veins and you must be curious about it. Why is sclerotherapy the best spider vein treatment? What happens during the sclerotherapy procedure? How much does sclerotherapy vein treatment cost? In this article, we answer all of those questions and more.
What is Sclerotherapy for Spider Veins?
Sclerotherapy is a minimally invasive and non-surgical spider vein treatment procedure. During this procedure, the vein doctor injects a medicine known as sclerosant into your superficial spider veins. This medicine immediately causes the walls of the veins to fuse together, which essentially shuts down the veins and restores blood circulation to healthier veins. You can treat up to 80% of your spider veins with a single sclerotherapy session, which makes it the most effective procedure available.
Sclerotherapy is a minimally invasive procedure that only requires a single injection and it has a success rate of 97%. Furthermore, sclerotherapy is completely safe with a negligible risk of side effects, and it’s an in-office outpatient procedure that concludes within 30 minutes and there’s no recovery downtime. All of these things considered, sclerotherapy is undoubtedly the best treatment for spider veins.
But sclerotherapy isn’t always suitable for spider veins. This procedure can only treat the surface spider veins. But as we’ve already discussed, spider veins can also be caused by deeper vein disease. In that case, sclerotherapy will only treat the surface symptoms without addressing the underlying disease, which will cause your spider veins to return later. That’s why it’s important that you get properly diagnosed and only go for sclerotherapy if there’s no venous insufficiency.
Cost of Sclerotherapy Procedures
The cost of a single sclerotherapy procedure can vary based on various factors like the extent of the disease, the location of the treatment, and various others. But the national average cost of sclerotherapy procedures is only $700. Unfortunately, however, you don’t get insurance coverage for sclerotherapy procedures because it’s regarded as a cosmetic procedure, i.e., medical unnecessary.
Other Varicose Veins and Spider Veins Treatments
As previously mentioned, sclerotherapy is only suitable for surface or superficial spider veins and not for varicose veins or venous insufficiency treatments. If your spider veins are caused by underlying vein disease, your vein doctor will likely recommend the following procedures.
Radiofrequency Ablation
Radiofrequency ablation is a procedure in which the vein doctor directs immense heat or thermal energy into the diseased vein via a catheter. The heat irritates the vein walls and eventually collapses the affected saphenous vein. When this happens, normal blood circulation is restored. This procedure treats the root cause of spider veins so you don’t have to worry about them returning.
A single radiofrequency ablation session may cost anything between $1,500 to $3,000, depending on your specific condition. However, you get insurance coverage for some or all of it since it’s a medically necessary procedure.
Endovenous Laser Ablation
Endovenous laser ablation is a procedure in which the vein doctor uses laser energy (instead of heat energy) to irritate and destroy the diseased saphenous vein. The laser energy, however, has to be channeled through a catheter hooked to a laser fiber and the doctor also needs to apply tumescent anesthesia.
Endovenous laser ablation causes more discomfort than radiofrequency ablation but it’s just as effective. A single laser ablation procedure costs between $2,000 to $7,000 but you can get insurance coverage for it since it’s medically necessary.
VenaSeal
VenaSeal is an extremely new varicose vein treatment procedure with a success rate of 99%. During the procedure, the vein doctor simply uses vein glue or medical adhesive to seal the walls of the diseased vein shut. The accumulated blood reroutes to other veins and normal blood circulation is restored.
VenaSeal is an extremely expensive procedure and it may cost several thousand dollars. Furthermore, since it has only recently been approved by the FDA, it’s also not covered by insurance.
Consult the Best Vein Center
At VIP Medical Group, we have some of the world’s finest vein doctors who carefully diagnose your spider veins before curating a minimally invasive treatment plan. For more information, please schedule your sclerotherapy procedures today.