Spider veins and varicose veins can cause significant discomfort and self-consciousness, but they’re also indicative of dangerous vein disease. If you have spider veins or varicose veins, please contact a reliable vein doctor or vein clinic for your vein treatment today.

Spider Veins & Varicose Veins Doctor

Spider veins and varicose veins make your legs look unhealthy and cause self-consciousness. But did you know they also indicate a dangerous underlying vein disease? Contrary to popular belief, spider veins and varicose veins aren’t mere cosmetic problems — they can have several long-term health implications.

At the Vein Treatment Clinic, located in Lindenhurst, Jericho, Hampton Bays, and Midtown Manhattan, NY, our highly-skilled and board-certified vein doctors provide comprehensive spider vein and varicose vein treatments for patients across New York.

Spider Vein & Varicose Vein Treatment Q&A

What are spider veins and varicose veins?

Spider veins are dense clusters of damaged blood vessels that appear on your skin’s surface, usually on the face, legs, or thighs. They can be described as a dense cluster of thin, web-like blood vessels, usually red or blue in color.

Varicose veins are also damaged blood vessels, but they’re slightly different. Varicose veins are essentially larger than spider veins and have more accumulated blood, so they bulge out of the skin’s surface, looking like a mass of twisted, tangled, or knotted ropes.

Over 50% of all women and over 40% of all men suffer from spider veins and varicose veins at some point in their lives. If you have spider veins and varicose veins, you’re not alone.

What causes spider veins and varicose veins?

The direct cause of spider veins and varicose veins is the accumulation of blood in the saphenous veins, usually on the legs. The primary root cause of spider veins and varicose veins is chronic venous insufficiency, a dangerous medical condition wherein the collapse of vein valves leads to the accumulation of blood in leg veins, eventually leading to spider veins and varicose veins.

Chronic venous insufficiency occurs when your vein valves collapse or malfunction. In healthy veins, the vein valves act as one-way doors, allowing blood to flow towards the heart but not backward due to gravity. When your vein valves collapse, gravity forces blood to flow backward and accumulate in the leg veins. The continued accumulation of blood in leg veins leads to vascular dilation and the eventual formation of spider veins and varicose veins.

If you have spider veins and varicose veins, you may also notice some of the other signs and symptoms of vein disease: leg heaviness, restless leg syndrome, frequent leg cramps, leg swelling, and skin discoloration. If you notice these symptoms, especially at the end of the day or after long periods of sitting or standing still, you must contact a reliable vein doctor or vein center.

How are spider veins and varicose veins treated?

The treatment of spider veins and varicose veins must be personalized according to your unique condition and goals. If you only have spider veins, the vein doctor may perform simple sclerotherapy to close off the unhealthy veins on the skin’s surface. But if your spider veins and varicose veins indicate underlying chronic venous insufficiency, the vein doctor will have to address the root cause before removing the visible veins from your skin’s surface.

A reliable vein center must start your treatment with a thorough evaluation and diagnosis. The vein doctor will examine your leg veins, discuss your symptoms, and administer ultrasound diagnostic tests, such as Duplex Ultrasound, to visualize the blood flow in your leg veins. After diagnosing underlying vein disease, the vein doctor will curate a personalized, minimally invasive vein treatment plan for you.

Depending on your unique condition and symptoms, your vein treatment plan may include:

• Radiofrequency Ablation: The vein doctor inserts a specialized catheter into the diseased saphenous vein and channels thermal energy, which destroys the unhealthy vein and reroutes the accumulated blood into healthier leg veins.
• Laser Ablation: The vein doctor makes a small incision on the skin’s surface and inserts a laser fiber into the diseased saphenous vein. The laser fiber generates laser energy to destroy the diseased vein, rerouting the accumulated blood into healthier veins.
• VenaSeal: The vein specialist injects a medical-grade adhesive into the diseased saphenous vein to seal its walls shut. The accumulated blood reroutes into healthier veins, and the diseased vein is eventually absorbed by the body.
• ClariVein: The vein doctor uses a specialized catheter with a rotating wire tip to damage the walls of the diseased vein while injecting a sclerosant medicine. This treatment simultaneously destroys and shrinks the diseased vein.
• Ambulatory Phlebectomy: The vein doctor makes extremely small incisions on the skin’s surface to physically extract the unhealthy varicose veins. This is a cosmetic procedure that instantly improves your leg’s appearance.
• Sclerotherapy: The vein doctor injects a sclerosant medicine into the spider veins to seal their walls shut, turning them into scar tissues eventually metabolized by the body. The spider veins soon fade away from the skin’s surface.

Minimally invasive spider vein and varicose vein treatments are simple, painless, in-office treatments that usually conclude within an hour and involve no downtime. You can resume your daily activities and work immediately after vein treatment. But one word of caution: please avoid vein centers that still rely on complex and risky surgical procedures for vein disease. Thanks to recent medical innovations, surgery is no longer necessary for the treatment of vein disease.

How can I reduce the risk of spider veins and varicose veins?

Spider veins and varicose veins may occur because of many factors, so there are no definitive preventative steps. But you can reduce the risk of spider veins and varicose veins by implementing the following lifestyle changes:

• Wear compression stockings regularly
• Engage in exercises that activate your calf muscles, such as running and swimming
• Elevate your legs above your heart’s level while sitting down or sleeping
• If you have a desk job, take short breaks every 30 minutes to walk around
  
  

Please Visit a Vein Clinic for Your Vein Treatment

The Vein Treatment Clinic is a group of state-of-the-art vein centers led by board-certified and Harvard-trained vein doctors. We specialize in comprehensive vein treatments that address the root cause of spider veins and varicose veins, ensuring safe and long-lasting results. If you have spider veins, varicose veins, or other signs and symptoms of vein disease, please visit one of our vein centers in Lindenhurst, Jericho, Hampton Bays, or Midtown Manhattan, NY.

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