Dr. Darm, Treating Spider Veins

Treating Spider Veins
as shown on Fox 12 Oregon's Good Day Oregon show
December 13, 2011

As we get older, almost everybody gets some, but nobody wants to talk about it, those big blue spider veins. It makes it hard to wear short or that little black party dress and it turns out it's also bad for your health. But there is something you can do about it. We're here with Dr. Darm at Aesthetic Medicine.

"So in her leg where we see just one spider vein, there are tens of thousands of veins here that you really can't see that are functioning completely normal. So this vein actually that you can is see is not functioning normally, it's sluggish where the blood flow in veins that you can't see is normal. These are aberrant veins, the ones that you actually can't see. They're not functioning and you actually improve the functioning of the legs by getting rid of the unsightly spider veins."

Dr. Darm says over half of the women have spider veins. They can be caused by heredity, pregnancy, or standing for long period of time. You can prevent some veins by wearing fix support stockings but if you're past prevention and looking for the cure, a treatment of injections called "Sclerotherapy" is the best option.

"There are lots of laser out there. I've purchased over 5 or 6 lasers to treat spider veins but really the best treatment is the Sclerotherapy. It's actually the chemical that we put into the vein that causes the vein to collapse. Once the vein collapses then there's no blood flow in the vein then within about 72 hours that vein will die. We also put very tight stockings on afterward to help enhance the collapsing molecules with the injection."

The stockings stay on 2 weeks to a month after each treatment. Between 50 and 80 percent of all problem veins can be treated in 2 sessions. Dr. Darm says this high percentage rate is special do at Aesthetic Medicine. Because of the unusual way they perform Sclerotherapy.

"We usually do an hour of treatment and unlike many centers we'll have 2 or 3 people injecting at one time. We'd like to get as much as done in one sitting as we can."

The pain is not too bad and the recovery time is fairly quick. You might be wondering why you need to worry about Sclerotherapy and showing off your legs in the dead of winter.

"Winter is the great time to do this and you should consider the winter months as the months where you can wear these tight fitting stockings for two weeks. Summer, hundred degrees, forget it. That's when everyone wants to do the treatment but really winter thinking ahead say 'I want to look good for spring and summer' now is the time in the winter to do this treatment."

Planning in advance will get you these beautiful legs this summer but Dr. Darm said that looking good is really half of the benefit.

"For a lot of people it's about appearance but really it's about their health, long term as well. In terms of some patients who develop bulging veins or so called varicose veins."

For more information on Sclerotherapy you can log on to www.drdarm.com or call at (503) 697 9777 for a free consultation.