Font Size: Increase | Decrease

How do I know which spider veins treatment to get?

more videos from this doctor

» Watch Next Video by Susan B. Fox, DO, RPVI, FSVM - Which tests diagnose venous disease?

Video Overview

How do I know which spider veins treatment to get? It depends on your skin color, the location of the spider veins, the size of the spider veins and the color of your skin. There are three main different treatment modalities for the treatment of spider veins. One is sclerotherapy, which involves injecting a solution directly into the vein and gradually the vein closes shut over the next several weeks. Usually this entails several different treatment sessions and the veins gradually go away. The next treatment option is Vein Gogh. Vein Gogh uses radio frequency waves to close the veins. This is only used for very tiny red spider veins and cannot be used on larger veins. The nice thing about the Vein Gogh is patients can immediately go out in the sun afterwards. It can be used on any skin type or skin color. With the Vein Gogh the patient does not need to wear compression hose afterwards. The third treatment would be laser. Laser is used for, again, small spider veins. It is done in the office by a trained physician or laser technologist. The problem with laser is that it can only be used with certain skin types. Certain skin types do not do well with laser and those are darker skin types. With those skin types the laser has shown to either hyper, meaning make it darker, or hypo pigment the skin, meaning make it lighter, and it can leave the skin discolored afterwards. So, laser needs to be used very carefully in the treatment of veins. 'Which treatment is best for me?' usually is determined by your medical professional, but your choices are one of those three, and the skin color, location and size are usually the determinants.
