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What are Spider Veins?
Spider veins are an indication of vein disease. You will find these tiny veins most commonly in your legs, but they can also appear in other places, like your face or hands.
Causes
Spider veins are the result of unhealthy valves that prohibit normal blood flow back to the heart. This backflow of blood can cause the veins just below the surface of the skin to stop working, developing the presence of spider veins. They can happen to anyone but are most common in pregnant women and patients over the age of 50. Other factors include:
- Hereditary and genetic factors
- Prolonged standing
- Being overweight
- Puberty, pregnancy and menopause (hormonal influences)
- Hormone treatment after menopause
- Irregular hormones caused by birth control
- Abdominal pressure from constipation, tight clothing or tumors
- Blood clots
Symptoms
Symptoms of spider veins occur mainly in your legs and in other places such as your face or hands and can include fatigue, aches, pains and a heavy feeling in the legs. Less commonly you may notice swelling or darkening of the skin in the ankles.
Elevating the effective area (above the heart) or wearing support stockings are great ways to lessen your symptoms.
Treatments
Before we consider any kind of treatment, you will be screened to make sure we completely understand your symptoms. From there, we will perform ultrasound vein mapping, so we can see exactly where the problem veins are located. If treatment is needed, we perform sclerotherapy, the most efficient and effective spider vein treatment option. This procedure is minimally invasive and requires little to no recovery time. In fact, most patients are able to drive themselves home after treatment and typically return to their normal activities the same day.
Featured Patient
Long days of teaching exacerbated the burning and restless feelings in Kendra Brauer’s legs. The bruises and visible veins also provoked curious questions from her second-grade students if she wore anything shorter than full-length pants. Brauer first noticed a bruise on her leg when she was in her mid-20s. Slowly, more veins showed up and […]
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