What are varicose veins or spider veins?
varicose veins, also known as telangectasias and spider veins can be blue, red, or purple. They’re clusters of tiny blood vessels on the skin and affect more than 80 million adult Americans. They’re not just a cosmetic problem. They actually can cause leg fatigue, swelling, poor circulation and in some cases, blood clots.
These vascular changes of the legs and face share some similarities and have some differences. The red vessels of the face are higher flow arterial extensions that arise from environmental stresses, sun damage and smoking history. Celtic and Eastern Europeans have higher incidence of the ruddy changes and vascular redness as they age.
What can you do about varicose veins or spider veins?
These higher flow vessels are very responsive to one or two treatments with a vascular laser wavelength that is tuned to the red spectrum found trans-illuminated through the upper skin layers. The Sciton BBL 560 laser does not have any recovery required, but leaves the skin a little sun chapped for the rest of the day after treatment. On the legs, the most common basis is from venous hypertension and these are more responsive to the gold standard treatment – injection sclerotherapy. A less painful agent called Asclera® (polidocanol) is now FDA approved and is far more comfortable than high concentration salt solutions I’ve used in past.
PS: Laser treatments are available for the lower flow blue appearing vessels of the legs and have no down time as well.
