Question:
Does anyone know what products will get rid of spider veins on the legs? I was going to purchase some Dermal-K cream, from Self Care catalog, but the product description said, "may help diminish spider veins." Has anyone tried any products that made their spider veins go away?

Answer: -There are physicians who will remove them surgically with great results. I have never tried this personally but have friends who have done so. One of my husband's clients, a surgeon, has devoted his entire practice to removing spider veins with great results. audrey -It seems as one gets older all the skin vessels all over the body become more prominent. Some are just enlarged deeper veins others are very small arteries or veins very close to the skin surface. Their treatment depends on which category they fall into & where on the body the lie. Red colored blood vessels above the collar bone usually respond well to flashlamp lasers although more than one treatment may be required to control these pesky critters. Occasional maintenance treatments may be required to keep them at bay. This modality has proven to be ineffective on the limbs & torso. This is probably due to water/blood pressure keeping these other vessels open while we spend most of the day upright. These vessels lower on the body respond better to injection sclerotherapy whereby concentrated solutions of sugar &/or salt water are injected to clot off the vessel. Again maintenance treatments may be required & sometimes there is some fine tuning of the injected solution. You want a solution that is strong enough to clot off the vessel but not so strong that it kills the skin. Although the technology is changing & better lasers may come to be I currently do not recommend laser obliteration of veins. The lasers designed for blood vessel obliteration are absorbed by the color red such as arteries & their contents. Veins are darker in color. To adjust for this absorption difference laser manufacturers are marketing their tattoo, hair & mole removal lasers which are absorbed by darker colors as vein removal devices. The efficacy of this is marginal at best. My opinion is that surgical removal is better for larger veins & sclerotherapy for smaller vessels. However, in the upper part of the face sclerotherapy cannot be used because of the proximity of the eyes & tendency for the sclerosant agent to migrate. Additionally, in most people compression stockings should be worn on the legs after treatment to prevent recurrence of visible leg veins.