Does Spider Vein Treatment (Sclerotherapy) Have Any Side Effects?

What Are Sclerotherapy Side Effects?

Spider vein treatment is not a “one shot deal”. It could take two, three or even four months of surface laser and sclerotherapy injection treatment to see the spider veins go away. Over this time, a patient may actually think their legs look “worse” before they get “better”. This is because some patients may get bruising, redness and even what we call “staining”, which is a sort of light-brownish discoloration that can occur where the injections take place. While all of this will eventually fade, it does take time and those getting treatment may need to have patience.

The good news is that the surface laser therapy and injection therapy is much better tolerated than it was years ago. Historically, when using laser therapy, an anesthetic cream was needed to help reduce the pain. However, I haven’t had to use anesthetic cream in about two years, since I purchased new, state-of-the-art surface vascular laser machines. Additionally, and this is a really important point, the lasers in my office are vascular lasers, not skin-based lasers. Vascular lasers are designed so that the laser energy goes through the skin, but does not touch the skin. Skin-based lasers, which are used in photo-rejuvenation, tend to hurt more than vascular lasers.

Improvements also have been made to injection treatments. In the past, “hypertonic saline” was used in injection treatments, which caused a great deal of burning and discomfort. We do not use saline in our office any more. Instead, we use better agents that are much better tolerated.