Sclerotherapy

What Is It?
Sclerotherapy is a safe, almost painless and well established treatment for red veins on the legs. It involves the superficial introduction of an extremely fine needle into the vein to be treated. The vein is then filled with a sclerosing liquid, which causes microscopic damage to the cells lining it. The body responds to this damage causing the vessel to shrink or be obliterated. Over several weeks the vein will fade away.

Your Experience
Each session lasts 30-45 minutes. The sclerosing agent used to inject has local anaesthetic properties and only the minimal discomfort is usually experienced during the procedure. Sometimes small swabs may be taped over the injection sites, which can usually be removed soon afterwards. You may resume to normal activities immediately, but special hosiery may be worn for a week afterwards. For one or two weeks the veins will probably appear more prominent than before treatment and the injection sites may look like small insect bites. The veins will then usually begin to fade and continue to do so for up to eight weeks or longer. After 8 weeks any remaining veins can be re-treated to reduce them further.

The Future
Most patients see a 60-80% improvement in the appearance of the veins somewhere between one and four treatments.

Side Effects
This is a safe, well researched and established treatment but as with any medical treatment complications can occur. Following treatment some patients may develop brown discolouration of the skin, which is due to the deposition of an iron-containing pigment (haemosiderin) in the skin. This pigment may take a while to fade away or very rarely be permanent.