Varicose veins are one of the most prominent types of leg veins in the world, and millions of people suffer from them. Those long, bulging, blue and green veins you see mainly at the back of the knees or on your inner thighs can be painful for many people, although some find they’re bothered by their cosmetic appearance first. At Calabasas Med Spa, we recommend having a vein scan should you feel any heaviness or soreness in your legs after long periods of sitting or standing prior to having vein therapy. Varicose veins can be a sign that there may be an issue within your deep venous system. If however, they are merely a cosmetic issue, there’s no reason to feel embarrassed by them, as we are on top of all the latest vein closure technology to get rid of them for good.
We develop varicose veins because of added pressure on our deep venous system. Deeper veins are underneath the skin and muscle tissues and are not visible; these deep veins are responsible for holding our blood that needs to make its way back up to the heart from running its course throughout the body delivering oxygen to our tissues and organs. The veins are the return route for blood, while the arteries push blood outward into the body. Blood coming from the heart moves with gravity, while return or venous blood must move upward against gravity.
The pressure in the veins can build up and cause a backup of blood in the vein, so much so that it must reroute the overflow to superficial veins in the body. These superficial veins in the legs are where we see varicose veins appear, as these bulging veins that puff up in the skin. Often people associate varicose veins with early signs of aging as their likelihood increases with age, but people of all ages find that they have varicose veins if they’re at higher risk for them.
Why we see this blood rerouted to superficial veins is that there may be incompetent valves within the deep veins due to high levels of sitting or standing that reduce sufficient blood flow. Deep veins have muscles surrounding them to assist in forward blood flow, but these topical veins have no such muscle support, and so we see varicose veins develop. If these surface vessels and veins were closed off, the blood would need to reroute to the deeper veins, and that’s where our vein closure procedures will help you.
The Sciton Leg Vein Laser provides a safe, fast, gentle and effective method for the removal of leg veins by producing an intense localized pulse of laser light of a wavelength which is preferentially absorbed by the color in the blood vessel. Since the Sciton Leg Vein Laser uses an adjustable beam, it can treat many differently-sized veins, although it is used most often for smaller veins. Spider veins can be acquired alone, but usually are the precursor to varicose vein development. These spider veins can dull complexions since they make the skin look tired, aged and red. The Sciton Leg Vein Laser can be used anywhere on the body where these smaller veins are found.
For patients that have been through much earlier invasive vein removal operations to rid their body of prominent varicose veins, Sclerotherapy is the complete opposite of phlebectomy procedures. Sclerotherapy gets rid of varicose and spider veins by injection of a sclerosant into the veins, usually a safe solution of saline and no physical ligation of the vein. As soon as this sclerosant is injected into varicose and spider veins, the vein walls become irritated and will stick together, closing off this vessel for any blood flow. The blood is then sent to deeper veins that can handle the added pressure. After sclerotherapy is performed on these veins, they collapse and reabsorb into the skin naturally.
Tanning should be avoided. The hair at the treatment site should be shaved at home before the laser treatment. To minimize any bruising after vein therapy it’s important to avoid aspirin, anticoagulants, and Ibuprofen both immediately before and after the laser treatment and sclerotherapy.
Usually, two to three treatments will be sufficient to achieve maximum benefit for laser vein therapy. If you decide to go with sclerotherapy, one treatment is enough for most patients but will depend on the length of your varicose veins and how many you would like treated.
To learn more about how we can help you get rid of your varicose and spider veins, call Calabasas Med Spa today at 818-225-0122.
* This information about vein removal of the legs was reviewed by Dr. Lawrence Osman. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us using our contact form below.
