How Sclerotherapy Works
Unlike many vein treatment centers, our board-certified vascular surgeon provides all spider vein treatment himself, ensuring the best possible cosmetic and medical results! Your first treatment with us is considered an “extended” treatment of about 40 minutes, where Dr. Schwartz will be able to inject a decent amount of spider veins during that time. Our follow-up sclerotherapy treatment sessions last approximately 20 minutes.
Upon sterilizing the injection site, Dr. Schwartz will inject a special solution directly into your problematic spider veins through a tiny needle. The goal is for the chemicals to irritate the lining of the blood vessels and cause them to collapse and stick together. Over time, the blood in the collapsed vessel will clot and cause the vessel to turn into scar tissues. Eventually, the scar tissues will disappear.
Sclerotherapy doesn’t come with any downtime, meaning you can resume work and your daily activities right away. We will, however, ask you to adhere to our specific post-treatment instructions. These will include waiting at least a week or so before resuming heavy lifting or vigorous exercising. A modified, less intense workout is encouraged. It’s important to note that results are not instant, and we often tell our sclerotherapy patients that their spider veins will look worse before they look better for the first two weeks following treatment. The treated spider veins will begin to fade about four to six weeks post-treatment, which is why we wait six weeks before repeating sclerotherapy injections on any remaining veins. Larger clusters of veins will take multiple treatments to completely eliminate them.