Do Spider Veins Come Back After Laser Treatment? And Other Spider Vein Treatment Questions

Patients seeking laser therapy for spider veins often ask, “do spider veins come back after laser treatment?” Well, the short answer for that is “yes,” laser therapy has a high rate of spider vein recurrence. But to understand why that’s so, you must understand what spider veins are and how they’re formed.

Spider veins are dense clusters of blood vessels that appear just underneath the skin’s surface. They’re essentially dilated or damaged vessels with accumulated blood. Spider veins aren’t medically dangerous, but they are potentially indicative of a dangerous circulatory disorder known as chronic venous insufficiency. Venous insufficiency is a medical condition wherein your vein valves collapse, and gravity forces blood to flow backward, eventually accumulating in the leg veins. The continued accumulation of blood in leg veins leads to vascular dilation and the eventual formation of spider veins, varicose veins, and other vein problems.

Laser therapy is one of the most common spider vein treatments offered at medical spas. During laser therapy, the medical provider channels specialized laser energy into the damaged blood vessels on your skin. The laser energy is absorbed by the pigment in the damaged vessels, and the spider veins’ walls eventually shrink. Over time, multiple laser therapy sessions can significantly shrink the spider veins’ walls, making them fade away from the skin’s surface. That provides the impression of a successful treatment, but the spider veins often return after a few months.

Laser therapy only treats the spider veins but not the underlying chronic venous insufficiency. As mentioned previously, spider veins are usually symptomatic of vein disease, but laser therapy only addresses the superficial symptoms. Your spider veins fade away, but blood continues accumulating in the leg veins, eventually leading to new spider veins and varicose veins. That’s why laser therapy is only suitable for temporary relief from spider veins — not for long-lasting or comprehensive relief. If you want to treat spider veins and the root cause, you must consult reliable vein treatment centers in NJ.

The duration of your spider vein treatment depends on the treatment plan and the specific procedures used. If the vein doctor performs sclerotherapy or laser therapy without diagnosing or treating chronic venous insufficiency, the procedure should conclude within 15 to 30 minutes. However, if the vein doctor performs ultrasound scans to diagnose vein disease and then treats the underlying chronic venous insufficiency, the entire procedure may last an hour. Most vein treatments conclude within an hour, at most, so you can also schedule the treatment during your lunch break.