Spider veins are a smaller version of varicose veins. They are often red or blue in color and are closer to the surface of the skin than varicose veins. These short serrated lines give the appearance of tree branches or spider webs. Spider veins can be found on the legs and face. They can cover either a very small or very large area of skin.
While arteries carry oxygenated blood from the heart towards the body parts, veins carry deoxygenated blood from the body back to the heart. The squeezing of leg muscles pumps blood back to the heart from the lower body. Veins have valves that prevent the back flow of blood as it moves up the legs. A weakness in these one-way valves causes leakage of blood back into the vein. Pooling of blood enlarges the vein and results in the formation of varicose and spider veins. Other factors that could increase the probability of developing spider veins are increasing age, hormonal changes, inherited factors, pregnancy, exposure to the sun, obesity and leg injury.
Although varicose veins can lead to serious health problem such as sores, skin ulcers, severe venous insufficiency, blood clots and pulmonary embolism; the effects of spider veins are limited to pain, irritation or swelling. Therefore, spider veins usually do not need medical treatment. Even then, many resort to treatment from the aesthetic point of view. The treatments available for spider veins incorporate sclerotherapy and laser surgery. Sclerotherapy involves injecting a solution into the vein that causes the vein walls to swell, stick together and close. This stops the flow of blood, turning the vein into scar tissue. Within a few weeks, the vein fades away. This therapy may be required more than once. The success rate is 50 to 90 percent, which can be further improvised with microsclerotherapy that utilizes special solutions and injection techniques. During laser surgery very strong bursts of light are sent onto the vein, which make the vein slowly fade and disappear. This treatment is more appealing to patients as it is characterized by no incisions and takes only 15 to 20 minutes. However, for spider veins larger than 3 mm, laser therapy may not be a very practical option.
The cost of spider vein removal for cosmetic purposes ranges from two to several hundred dollars. The most common technique implemented for the removal of spider veins is laser therapy, the cost of which is approximately about 400 dollars. From the medical point of view, cosmetic surgeries are almost never necessary. Such surgeries do not involve serious health issues and are generally undertaken to improvise upon one's appearance. Therefore, the treatment of spider veins is not covered by most insurance companies. A rare exception of the spider vein removal cost being covered by insurance could be possible, if a doctor verifies that the condition is causing incurable physical ailments. This could include pain in the legs and difficulty in walking.
Another extremely vital part involving the cost of spider vein removal is that the treatment is not instant. Most of laser spider vein removals require several sessions to eliminate the appearance of all veins. Thus, the actual cost would be the consolidated amount of all the sessions. Laser treatments performed by technicians are generally less expensive than those available at a dermatologist's office. However, in either case, it is important to discuss the extent of the treatment initially so as to obtain an accurate estimate for the total cost of removing the spider veins and not one solitary session.
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