Varicose Veins

What are the Side Effects of Sclerotherapy?

Varicose veins

After your first and subsequent treatments to eliminate spider veins and varicose veins, you may be instructed to wear gradient compression stockings to decrease any minor swelling you may experience and help your body’s healing process. Your doctor will provide you with detailed instructions on their correct placement, correct sizing to get the proper amount of pressure on your legs, and how long you’ll need to wear them. Read more >>

Will Unsightly Veins Return After Treatment?

Spider Veins

“Will my unsightly veins come back?” is a question patients seeking treatments for veins often ask. No, they won’t come back, but they will appear to return! Women who develop spider veins do so because they are prone to getting them. That is an undeniable and unfortunate fact. So when we get rid of the veins using injection laser ablation or microphlebectomy, that underlying propensity for the veins to develop is still there! Unfortunately, varicose veins or spider veins are, in large part, genetically determined.

However, do not fret! At The Vein Center in Clifton, Springfieldor Westfield, we can eliminate those unwanted veins. Quite often, keeping ahead of the developing spider veins and varicose veins is simple once the process has begun. While the veins that are injected or removed will never come back, those new veins that develop are often small. When these are attacked early, the leg vein treatment is much simpler. When injecting, less solution is needed and the process is quicker and easier than the initial treatment session. Most importantly, at The Vein Center, we will determine if you have an underlying problem that can lead to more varicose and spider veins developing. Specifically, many veins can develop from poorly functioning valves in the deeper veins in the leg. If this condition exists, while not at all dangerous, it almost certainly will lead to new varicose veins developing if the underlying problem is not corrected. Read more >>

Where Do Spider Veins Come From?

Spider Vein Treatment

Where do spider veins come from? The simple answer is from genes! There is a known genetic predisposition to developing varicose veins or spider veins. Simply put, if your Mom (or Dad) had spider veins, you are likely to get them as well! Certainly not every child of a parent who has problem veins is going to develop them so there must be some other factors involved, right? Of course! Nothing is ever simple and straightforward! At The Vein Center in Westfield and Clifton we are constantly asked, “Why do my legs look and feel like my mother’s legs when my sister or brother have perfect legs?” That is because, while there is a genetic basis for most vein problems (spider veins or varicose veins), your everyday life (commonly referred to as your environment) has a great deal to do whether or not you will develop varicose and spider veins. Read more >>

Can Creams and Lotions Treat Problem Veins?

Creams and Lotions

Here at the VeinCenter we’re often asked by new patients about advertisements they’ve seen for varicose vein cream or lotion for spider veins that promise to remove these unsightly vein conditions. The patients want to know if these vein treatments are effective. While we would love to see a body cream or lotion that eradicates spider veins, varicose veins, or any other condition that results in unsightly veins, we have yet to see a topical product that legitimately even reduces, let alone removes, problem veins! Most of these products tout the “natural healing power” of a variety of substances, with very little (if any) supporting scientific evidence of their success. More discouraging is the lack of an explanation of how the product works to “make veins disappear.”

To be sure, over the years we have kept an open mind to the possibility that a topical product can make abnormally dilated veins shrink, or somehow repair the leaky valves in the veins that allow blood to flow backward and pool. After all, not everything that occurs can be readily explained by current knowledge. We recognize the limitations of our understanding and would readily accept the use of a product for treatment of veins that effectively eradicated these problems as if by magic–as long as we saw that the product worked. We’re still waiting for the first of those miracle natural remedies for spider veins or tonic for varicose veins that will actually live up to its promises. Read more >>

Benefits of Sclerotherapy

Varicose Vein Treatment

Sclerotherapy may not be a new way to eliminate varicose veins and spider veins, but as we blogged about recently, the persistence of this therapy is a testament to its success as a treatment for spider veins. Better instruments and improved therapeutic agents keep sclerotherapy as a proven and effective treatment for spider and varicose veins. As with any therapy, vein sclerotherapy has both benefits and potential drawbacks. That’s a message we at the Vein Center, with offices in Westfield, Clifton and Springfield, New Jersey, believe should be part of any discussion between patients and their physicians about treatment options. So let’s start the discussion with the benefits of sclerotherapy.

Sclerotherapy treatment is usually a cosmetic procedure. Though varicose veins do not contribute to health problems, most people seek treatment because they want to get rid of unsightly dilated varicose and spider veins. They are simply tired of their legs looking, and sometimes feeling, like their grandmother’s legs. Sclerotherapy achieves their goals. It is highly effective in reducing or eliminating unsightly varicose veins, reticular veins or spider veins. The great majority of patients are happy with the results and feel better about themselves, and that’s benefit Number One. Another benefit of sclerotherapy is that it’s a simple procedure. No hospitalization is required, making sclerotherapy a very affordable procedure – a huge plus. A sclerotherapy injection can be performed in a vein specialist’s office, and results are readily visible. The procedure is usually completed in 15 to 20 minutes, and normal daily activities can be resumed immediately. One final point: while most cases of spider veins are indeed a cosmetic problem, in some patients they can cause aching and pain in the affected limbs. Sclerotherapy can relieve these symptoms. As with any medical procedure, sclerotherapy also has potential risks and downsides. That’s a subject for our next blog.