Thread Veins (Spider Veins)

Thread veins on the leg are commonly called Spider veins, Broken Veins, Surface veins or Venous Flares. It doesn't really matter what you call them as long as you don't get them confused with Varicose veins.

If you have thread veins, you really should have a venous duplex ultrasound before having any treatment to make sure that you don't have leg pump failure underlying the thread veins.

How do we treat thread veins?

There are several treatments available for thread veins depending where they are. For the legs, the best treatment is usually microsclerotherapy. Laser treatment, IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) and electrolysis are best for thread veins on the face (see Absolute Aesthetics for this). Microsclerotherapy not only gets rid of the thread veins veins, but you might notice that any symptoms have also gone.

Microsclerotherapy involves injecting the veins with a chemical using tiny needles. This destroys the vein making the walls of the veins fibrose (or "stick") together. After treatment on the legs, you will need to wear compression stockings for 1 week.

As microsclerotherapy closes the veins by inflammation of the wall, most patients get a patch of inflamed skin over the site of the injection which lasts for up to two weeks. This inflammation is actually very good – it is the body’s way of removing the dead vein. The area then settles down but the full benefit can take up to 12 weeks to be seen. After that you will find that the veins often continue to improve for up to a year after the treatment. Depending on the number of thread veins on the legs, several sessions may be needed to get the required results, but usually two will be enough.

How good is microsclerotherapy?

Compared with other treatments, microsclerotherapy gives the best results  with 95% of our patients seeing an improvement and 80% getting a good or very good result.

Are there any side effects to microsclerotherapy?

As with any medical procedure, there are some risks involved, but complications with microsclerotherapy are very rare and are generally of a very minor nature:

Some 4-5% of people can get brown marks – usually very mild and usually fading over several weeks or months. Very occasionally the brown stains can be dark. At The Whiteley Clinic we check anyone who has brown stains as many can be improved by releasing any trapped blood in the veins that were treated.
In the past, red stains were occasionally seen after some microsclerotherapy treatments. However, at The Whiteley Clinic, we haven’t seen any red stains for many years. This is because we scan our patients before thread vein treatment – which means we don’t miss the underlying problems that actually cause the red stains.

Approximately 1% (1 in 100) people can get a little break down of the skin – called a chemical ulcer. This can be very tender for a few weeks and then usually heals with a small scar. This scar can be permanent, but such a small scar is usually better then the thread veins that were there before the treatment.

Allergies are often quoted as a problem but they are exceptionally rare.