Both spider veins and varicose veins can be symptoms of serious vascular disease requiring treatment. At Vascular Surgery Associates Medical Group, serving Beverly Hills and the Greater Los Angeles area from office locations in Beverly Grove, Santa Monica, and Glendale, California, the vascular disease experts can diagnose and treat veins of all types using the latest advanced technology. Schedule an appointment online or call the office nearest to you today.
Veins are soft tubelike blood vessels that move your blood upwards. Your arteries take blood from the heart and deliver it throughout your body, then return the blood to the heart for reoxygenation.
Your veins push blood upwards; they have one-way valves that prevent your blood from moving back down.
If your vein valves malfunction or sustain damage, they can stop working correctly. This leads to chronic venous insufficiency, in which blood leaks back down into your legs and pools there.
Chronic venous insufficiency can lead to many troubling issues within your legs, including:
In addition to these physical symptoms, you may also have prominent varicose veins — thick ropy veins that protrude from your legs. Spider veins (small weblike veins) can also occur because of chronic venous insufficiency.
Some spider and varicose veins improve with weight loss, compression hosiery, regular exercise, and other conservative measures.
If your spider or varicose veins remain after trying other treatments and they’re causing disruptive symptoms, Vascular Surgery Associates Medical Group offers a full menu of vein treatment services that can help. These include:
Sclerotherapy involves injecting a liquid or foam (Varithena®) that causes scarring within the vein and eventually leads to vein collapse.
The sclerosing agent (the liquid or foam) dissolves harmlessly as the vein collapses, and the blood moves to healthier veins nearby. As a result, the vein tissue breaks down, and your body flushes it out over time.
Endovenous laser therapy uses laser light to heat and close veins. Then, the blood reroutes, and your body flushes out the vein tissue.
Radiofrequency ablation works in much the same way as endovenous laser therapy. It targets the vein from within by heating and closing veins. The main difference between the two procedures is that radiofrequency ablation uses high-frequency radio waves instead of laser light.
In most cases, minimally invasive procedures like sclerotherapy, laser therapy, or radiofrequency ablation are extremely effective for problem veins. In the rare event that one of these procedures doesn’t work for you, your doctor can explain other options like ambulatory phlebectomy, which removes the veins through incisions.
If you have questions or concerns about your veins, the Vascular Surgery Associates Medical Group experts can help. Call the office nearest to you or schedule an appointment online today.
