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Effective laser for the treatment of spider
legs.
These are telangiectasias (superficial blood vessels) with a diameter of 0.1 to 1 mm
that are seen in the skin of the lower extremities. Usually they are arboriform, forming
small threads of red or violet colour, of tortuous route. They may or may not have
several ramifications. Likewise, they may have a common central trunk from which
the ramifications depart. It is believed that up to 30-40% of women and 5-15% of men
have spider veins on legs. They do not suppose any alteration of the health, but an
aesthetic alteration.
How are spider veins treated in the legs?
There are two main types of treatment for leg heaviness: one is
sclerotherapy treatment (injecting a chemical inside the vessels that causes its
collapse) and laser ablation treatment (light systems that send very punctual heat to
eliminate the vessels). There are different causes of leg heaviness.
For spider veins less than 1 mm in diameter, sclerotherapy is a difficult technique and
not without adverse effects -hyper pigmentation, skin necrosis, thrombosis, allergic
reactions-, which is why many authors prefer to use vascular lasers. There are
different types of compression hose for varicose veins, whose target is the
haemoglobin circulating inside the vessels. The pulsed dye laser has a very short
action pulse, which usually causes the blood vessel to explode, causing purple
(hematoma) of days. The laser concentrates the energy in the haemoglobin of the
blood vessels, produces agglutination of the red blood cells inside the capillaries, and
coagulation of the same. The likelihood of vessels exploding causing purple and / or
hyper pigmentation is minimal with the laser. Spider vein treatment cost is not too
much.
How effective is the laser for the treatment of fine spider legs?
There are several studies where the effectiveness of the laser ablation for the
elimination of spider veins from the legs has been evaluated. First of all, the work of
Spendel and colleagues stands out, in which 70 women aged between 19 and 50 years
were evaluated with spider veins in the lower extremities without alteration in the
deep venous circulation.
For vascular spiders with diameters less than 1 mm, there was a reduction of more
than 50% in thickness in 80% of the participants. The treatment with sclerosis in the
same study showed that there were no significant changes in 88% of the participants
whose spider veins had a diameter less than 0.7 mm. Therefore, in spider veins with
diameters smaller than 0.7 mm, the effectiveness of the laser is much higher than that
of sclerosis. However, for vessels larger than 0.7 mm, its effectiveness is lower. This
result is in perfect agreement with the laser wavelength (532 nm), which positions it
as an excellent treatment for superficial vascular lesions but not for deep or thick
lesions. For thick or deep vascular structures, it is recommended to use lasers with a
longer wavelength, such as Nd: YAG (1064 nm). Is laser ablation safe, yes it is
completely safe.
In the study by Bernstein and colleagues, 20 women were treated with two laser
sessions. In more than 70% of the treated patients a "significant" or "very significant"
response was observed. All the participants were satisfied with the treatment and
would recommend it.