Hand Vein Treatment
One of the fastest growing requests from my patients seeking a more youthful appearance, due to what they perceive as prominent veins, is the treatment of hand veins.
Most people know about spider veins in the legs, but there is an increasing awareness and desire to treat hand veins, too. These are primarily women, and occasionally men, who do not like the appearance of the veins on the back of their hands, and seek treatment.
For this, there are essentially 3 options:
Sclerotherapy – injecting the veins like we do in the legs, with a sclerosing solution;
Injecting ‘fillers’ in the hand to puff up the tissue around the veins to mask their appearance;
Venous phlebectomy, where the veins are actually removed.
Some people ask “Don’t I need those veins?” The simple answer is that our bodies have a lot of veins to carry blood, and there is almost never a problem treating veins in the hands or legs.
I have performed all of the above procedures, but for the past several years have exclusively treated dorsal hand veins with the cosmetic phlebectomy. The results are nothing short of excellent, and every patient has been very pleased with their results. Done in my office under local anesthesia, tiny incisions are made and the veins are removed. Great care is taken to prevent nerve damage, but sometimes a prominent vein near the thumb cannot be removed due to the possibility of a close nerve, and thus the risk of numbness after the procedure.
The entire procedure takes about 30 minutes, and we typically wait at least 2 weeks between doing each hand. With the use of local anesthesia, there is very little pain during the procedure, as well as afterwards. Most patients get some swelling in the hand, which is over 90% gone by 2 weeks. As a board-certified CVT surgeon, I am meticulous and cautious, which is why this procedure has become so successful for my patients.
For more information, call us at The Kimmel Institute and schedule your hand vein consultation.
