“Are varicose and spider vein treatments in the winter a good idea ?” is a question we are often asked at the Schulman Vein and Laser Center.
While there is no ‘season of vein therapy’ per se, it makes sense to start treatment early as it takes time for treated veins to heal and disappear.
Many of our current patients know that the most common, and always temporary, side effect of vein injection therapy is very minor bruising around the treated areas in the leg. While most patients experience little to none of it, it can occur so treatment in times of the year when the legs are not exposed, winter vs. summer, is logical.
In terms of this temporary discoloration, should it occur, it is not uniform. The areas in the legs where we see it most, is in the upper inner thighs, if veins there are treated. The skin is not as tight as elsewhere in the leg and while most patients do not get black and blue, we prefer to warn our patients it may occur. Treatment of the veins in the hands and arms almost never bruise, while treatment of chest and breast veins are more likely to but again its always temporary should it occur.
Patients undergoing the EVLT, endo venous laser treatment for varicose veins or ambulatory phlebotomy, micro surgery for vein removal, are more prone to bruising or hematomas. In the laser vein therapy it is due to the use of local anesthesia injected around the veins to be lasered. Some patients get none and some can get easily visible darking from the blood but again it is always temporary. Patients treated by sclerotherapy (injection therapy) are the ones least likely to bruise.