Visible Sclerotherapy

Spider veins rarely are a serious health problem, but they can cause uncomfortable feelings in the legs. If you have symptoms from spider veins, most often they will be itching or burning. Less often, spider veins can be a sign of blood backup deeper inside that you can’t see on the skin. If so, you could have the same symptoms you would have with varicose veins. Varicose veins may be asymptomatic and not cause any problems, or they may cause aching pain, throbbing, and discomfort. In some cases, varicose veins can lead to more serious health problems.

These include:

Sores or skin ulcers due to chronic (long-term) backing up of blood. These sores or ulcers are painful and hard to heal. Sometimes they cannot heal until the backward blood flow in the vein is repaired.

Bleeding. The skin over the veins becomes thin and easily injured. When an injury occurs, there can be significant blood loss. Bleeding in the shower is a common in this subset of vein patient.

Superficial thrombophlebitis (throm-bo-fli-BYT-uhs), which is a blood clot that forms in a superficial vein just below the skin. Symptoms include skin redness; a firm, tender, warm vein; and sometimes pain and swelling. Superficial thrombophlebitis can progress into the deep system and can be dangerous if left untreated.

Deep vein thrombosis, which is a blood clot in a deeper vein. It can cause a “pulling” feeling in the calf, pain, warmth, may feel like a cramp that won't go away and cause swelling. However, sometimes it causes no significant symptoms. If the blood clot travels to the lungs, it can be fatal.

Spider veins usually take on one of three basic patterns: they may appear in a true spider shape with a group of veins radiating outward from a dark central point (A); they may be arbored and take branch-like shapes (B); or they appear as separate lines, each about the size of a large hair (C). Linear spider veins are commonly seen on the inner knee, whereas the arbored pattern often appears on the outer thigh in a sunburst or cartwheel distribution.

Take the online vein screening questionnaire and one of our associates will contact you.