Visibly dilated vessels on the legs can impair the skin’s appearance, are often perceived as cosmetically disturbing by the persons concerned and affect their well-being. The wish for more attractive and healthy-looking legs often leads them to a dermatological practice. First, an experienced dermatologist should then rule out the presence of pathological vessel alterations (e.g. varicose veins). After excluding an underlying vessel problem, the treatment of spider veins in our practice can be planned. They can be removed or reduced via sclerotherapy (obliteration with aethoxysklerol) and laser therapy. Which treatment option is best suited for the individual patient is decided upon when analysing the spider veins’ appearance. It may be useful to combine both procedures. However, sclerotherapy is still considered the gold standard as it has proven not just a little more effective but also gentler.
During sclerotherapy a fluid active substance is injected using a fine cannula. This results in the obliteration of the unwanted spider veins. Afterwards, a compression therapy of the treated area follows to optimise the effect. Follow-up treatments are often necessary to achieve a cosmetically satisfactory result.
For especially delicate spider veins, treatment with a vessel laser (lithium borate laser) is suitable. The laser beam is lead over the vessels to be treated point by point and induces their adhesion. The treatment is complimented by air cooling to optimise its tolerability.