Sclerotherapy

Overview

What is Sclerotherapy..?

In the majority of cases, a procedure called sclerotherapy is used to treat these blood vessels, in which a solution called a sclerosant is injected, using a very fine needle, directly into the blood vessel.

This procedure has been used in various forms for veins since the 1920s but has only been associated with an acceptably low side effect rate in the more recent past.

How it Works

The solution irritates the lining of the vessel, causing it to swell and stick together. Some vessels will fade from view, eventually becoming barely or not at all visible.

A few vessels will need a second treatment, and a few will not be accessible for injection at any given treatment session because they will have been covered by the tape used to pressurise other veins treated during that session. Depending on its size, a single blood vessel may have to be injected more than once, but in any one treatment session a number of vessels may be injected.

The solutions used vary somewhat with the size of the vessel to be injected, and your doctor will be able to decide which veins are best treated with which solutions. Larger varicose veins often underlie spider veins. In such cases it is thought that it is best to treat these vessels first.

If the varicose and reticular veins are treated first, often the spider veins that were connected to these will disappear over the following weeks without themselves being injected. Because of this it may be advisable to space out the visits to allow maximal resolution of veins following each treatment, thereby minimising the number of treatments required.