What Are Spider Veins?

Spider veins are so named because they resemble spider webs, but these webs appear in colors such as purple or red. Spider veins typically appear on your face or legs. You may notice spider veins on your cheeks or around your nose, just under the skin. They can also appear on the chest and other body areas. The annoying and unsightly veins are medically known as telangiectasias and sometimes referred to as broken capillaries, because they affect your body’s smallest blood vessels. The capillaries are dilated or filled up with pooled blood. Spider veins are a common reason patients seek quick and effective assistance at our vein center. Our Northern Kentucky vascular specialists can destroy and banish your spider veins during a quick in-office treatment session. Follow-up treatments are often required, because those who are prone to getting spider veins may continue to develop new ones.

What Causes Spider Veins? Who Gets Them?

• Increasing age
• Oral birth control medications and/or HRT (hormone replacement therapy)
• Hormone fluctuation (as in puberty, menopause, pregnancy)
• Family history (inherited tendency to develop spider veins)
• UV exposure (especially for people with lighter skin tones)
• Sitting or standing on your feet for significant uninterrupted time*
• Choosing to wear tight clothes*
• Obesity*
• Constipation*

(* These causes are all related to extra physical pressure placed on veins, which can cut off circulation and makes veins vulnerable to blood pooling. These causes are somewhat under your control. Healthy eating and lifestyle changes can help avoid future spider veins.)

Symptoms of Spider Veins

Most people have only minor symptoms from spider veins or may only be annoyed about the appearance. Some people also notice physical discomfort like the following, especially if they also have varicose veins or other vein disease:

• Calf and/or ankle swelling
• Aching or throbbing in the lower legs, burning
• Itching
• Heaviness, tired legs
• “Pins and needles”
• Leg cramps

Treatment Options for Spider veins in Cincinnati, OH

• Compression stockings (for varicose and spider veins in the lower legs): These support socks put graduated pressure on lower legs to help blood flow in the right (upward) direction without pooling in the ankles.
• Sclerotherapy: Your vein surgeon injects your abnormal veins with a special chemical, irritating the vascular lining and making capillaries or varicose veins collapse. Your body simply carries away the “dead” veins/capillaries.
• Laser vein treatment: Controlled pulses of laser light energy are used to destroy the spider vein or varicose vein.

Get Help for Spider Veins at Our Vein Center in Northern Kentucky

Now that you know the answer to the burning question, “what are spider veins?” be sure to visit our vein doctors soon. At VIA Vein Center, (Vascular & Interventional Associates Vein Center) we’re the only comprehensive vein center in the Cincinnati, OH and Northern Kentucky areas, treating spider veins, varicose veins and other vein disease. To get rid of your spider veins quickly, call us at 859-286-7333 today!