Our veins are vital to our health as they circulate nutrients and oxygen throughout the body, though they can sometimes become problematic. Varicose, spider, and reticular veins can all develop and become visible while occasionally causing symptoms like pain and itching. Sclerotherapy has proven to be the most effective way of treating these issues, and our patients have had great results with this treatment here at Shenandoah Women’s Healthcare in Harrisonburg, VA.
How Does Sclerotherapy Work?
This therapy is an injectable treatment for veins that are unhealthy or causing pain. It’s commonly used to treat spider, varicose, and reticular veins, which can be eliminated with a single treatment. These veins can develop for many different reasons, and regardless of their cause, sclerotherapy is normally very effective at treating them. This treatment consists of a solution that penetrates the endothelium, which is a thin lining found within blood vessels.
Once the solution works its way into this lining, it causes it to collapse, and this then causes the troublesome vein to close. Blood that would normally flow through this vein is then rerouted to other veins within its proximity. The result is often a reduction in pain and improvements in how veins look, as the treated veins normally disappear afterward.
What Types of Veins Can Be Treated?
This treatment can be effective for the following vein types:
Spider Veins
Small, visible veins that twist and branch out throughout the skin are telangiectasias, otherwise known as “spider veins.” Women commonly experience these on their legs, but they can occur in other areas of the body as well. Although they’re normally red, they can also sometimes be blue or purple, and while they don’t typically cause pain, in some cases they can, which is usually felt as a subtle aching or burning pain.
Varicose Veins
Large, purple, or dark blue squiggly veins that can be seen under the skin are usually varicose veins, which, similar to spider veins, are damaged blood vessels. However, they’re typically much larger than spider veins and tend to bulge out, so they can be more noticeable. Pressure in the legs or elsewhere in the body, as well as trauma, can cause them to form. Varicose veins commonly cause pain and itchiness, so they can be quite distressing in some cases.
Reticular Veins
Smaller than varicose veins, reticular veins can look similar but don’t normally cause the same symptoms. They usually appear as blueish-purple veins just beneath the surface of the skin, but don’t protrude or bulge out in the same way that varicose veins do. These veins are often seen alongside both varicose and spider veins, but their color and small size, typically less than 2mm in diameter, can help distinguish them from these other two types.
What Medication Is Used for the Injections?
The medications that we use for this therapy can vary, depending on your needs, the size of your veins, and how severe your condition is. Four types of solutions are commonly used: hypertonic saline, polidocanol, sodium tetradecyl sulfate, and a combination of glycerin, lidocaine, and epinephrine. All of these solutions work in different ways, though all have proven to be effective at treating unhealthy veins.
What Happens During Sclerotherapy Treatment?
You can expect the following after you schedule an appointment:
1. Initial Consultation
When you arrive for your appointment, we’ll conduct a quick but thorough consultation to make sure that this is the right treatment for your issues. We’ll assess any veins that you have, and we’ll ask about your medical history, lifestyle, and any medications that you might be currently taking. Blood-thinning medications, for example, should not be taken while undergoing this treatment.
2. Solution Injection
To administer the solution, we’ll inject it directly into any problematic veins that you have. The area where the injection is made will be sanitized and numbed with an anesthetic beforehand, so you shouldn’t feel any pain other than possibly a tiny pinprick sensation.
There may be some minor discomfort once the solution enters the vein, but this shouldn’t last longer than a few minutes. The entire process usually doesn’t take longer than an hour, but this depends upon how many veins we’ll be treating.
3. Aftercare Precautions
For the first few days afterward:
- Keep the injection site clean
- Don’t take anti-inflammatories
- Take showers instead of baths
- Use cool or lukewarm water
- Avoid heat and direct sunlight
4. Follow-up Appointment
We typically schedule a follow-up appointment after your treatment session, which allows us to see how responsive the veins were to the sclerosing solution and whether additional treatments will be needed, though, in most cases, a single treatment is effective.
How Soon Does This Therapy Take To Work?
Most patients can expect to see results within a few weeks, as the treated veins can take some time to eventually collapse. The body will naturally absorb the veins when this happens, so they will gradually disappear with time.
However, this can also sometimes happen much sooner or even later, with some late responders seeing results more than a month after their injections. Although rare, in some cases we may need to treat the same vein twice if it doesn’t respond to the first treatment and, although rare, this occasionally happens with larger veins that require multiple treatments.
Will Veins Treated With Sclerotherapy Return?
Once the vein is treated with this therapy and collapses, it won’t return. You won’t have to worry about retreating the same veins once they disappear, and you’ll only need a re-treatment in the rare case that the vein doesn’t respond the first time and is still noticeable long after treatment.
This therapy is permanent, and once the veins disappear, they won’t reappear again. It’s always possible that other veins may appear in the same area where you receive treatment, but this is not due to sclerotherapy, as new veins can appear at any time during life for different reasons.
What Are Some of the Benefits of This Therapy?
Some of the many benefits of this treatment include:
Pain Elimination
If you’ve been suffering from painful veins, whether they’re aching, stinging, or burning, this treatment can be quite effective at offering relief for these types of symptoms. Pain relief can sometimes take a few weeks or months to occur, but in many cases, this can happen quickly.
Itching Relief
Itchy veins can be a nuisance during the day and they can keep you up all night, but luckily, itching normally resolves after the veins are treated with this therapy. You should notice less itching as the veins begin to collapse, and this symptom should completely resolve once they disappear.
Quick Treatment
Many patients are surprised with how quick the treatment process is, as a single vein can take less than a few minutes to treat, while multiple veins typically take less than an hour. Issues that can last a lifetime can otherwise be resolved in a single session.
Convenient Application
Because this treatment is performed on an outpatient basis, you won’t have to stay the night in a hospital or worry about any long downtime or recovery period. You can drive yourself home immediately after we finish the injections.
Improved Appearance
The appearance of spider, varicose, and reticular veins can be unsightly and embarrassing for some, but after treatment, most patients have renewed confidence when they see these types of issues gradually disappear. Blue, purple, red, or bulging veins should all disappear, and your skin should then be as clear as it was before the veins appeared.
Safe and Widely Tested
With no incisions, lasers, or sedatives, sclerotherapy is much safer than many other treatments and has been widely tested. A small needle and sclerosing solution are all that are normally needed to effectively treat visible or bothersome veins.
Who Is a Good Candidate for This Therapy?
As a minimally invasive treatment, sclerotherapy is known for being quite safe and appropriate for healthy women who have painful or visible veins. However, it’s not for everyone, and women who are breastfeeding, currently pregnant, or have been pregnant within the past three months shouldn’t have this treatment.
Those with blood-clotting issues, such as deep vein thrombosis, should avoid sclerotherapy as well. During the initial consultation, we’ll also need to make sure that you’re not on any medications that are contraindicated with this treatment, such as anticoagulants.
Schedule With Us Today
Visible, itchy, or painful veins can affect your quality of life in many ways, but sclerotherapy is a safe and effective treatment that can offer relief for these issues. To see how this treatment can help you, contact us at Shenandoah Women’s Healthcare in Harrisonburg, VA so we can schedule your initial consultation and start your path back toward symptom-free living today.