Sclerotherapy is a common cosmetic procedure that is used to treat blood vessels or its malformations (vascular malformations) and also those of the lymphatic system, which are vessels involved in the immune system providing protection against infection. A medicine is injected into the vessels, which makes them shrink.
This procedure is suitable for most children and young adults with vascular or lymphatic malformations. In adults, sclerotherapy is often used to treat varicose veins (spider veins) and hemorrhoids.
In Ultrasound-Guided Sclerotherapy, the ultrasound is utilized to visualize the underlying vein so the cosmetics doctor can deliver and monitor the injection.
Even though lasers are most commonly used to treat varicose and spider veins, sclerotherapy (vein injections) continue to remain the common standard for eliminating spider veins (telangiectasiae) and smaller varicose leg veins in many people worldwide.
Sclerotherapy has evolved over the years into the one of the most effective and comprehensive tools for the management of large varicose veins and venous malformations in people. This technique utilizes guidance by ultrasound in order to inject a foam sclerotherapy, a “foam like solution of a drug”.
This “liquid-foam like tool” is very powerful for the effective closer of diseased blood vessels, which is much higher when it is compared to ordinary sclerotherapy. More importantly, this technique is minimally invasive to the patient, cost effective, and can even be used repetitively for the long-term management of chronic vascular diseases (varicose veins and venous malformations) unlike other major cosmetic plastic surgery techniques.
Proper sclerotherapy must be performed by an experienced cosmetic plastic surgeon or qualified cosmetics professional for excellent results to be realized for the patient. By gently and accurately injecting the unwanted veins with a sclerosing solution will cause the target vein to immediately shrink in size, and then dissolve over a period of a few weeks as the body will naturally absorb the treated vein. Since the sclerosant is injected directly into the patient’s vein, there is literally no damage that can be attributed to the surrounding skin as this can be experienced during laser therapy.
Unlike a using a laser, the sclerosing solution closes the “feeder veins” under the patient’s skin that are causing the spider veins to form in the body, as this prevents a recurrence of the spider veins in the treated area.
If you have vericose veins (spider veins) and are considering if Sclerotherapy will be of benefit to you, we suggest you click on one or more of the links below to connect with multiple qualified cosmetic plastic surgeons in order to discuss your situation in more detail…
