Get to Know Asclera® for Treating Spider and Reticular Veins

With summer in full swing, you love being able to bare your legs and let them air out a little after a long winter and chilly spring. Yet, you hesitate these days thanks to a compilation of visible veins that squirm across the surface of your skin or lurk just below.

Called spider veins and reticular veins, these varicosities may be less obvious than their larger cousins — varicose veins — but you still find them to be cosmetically annoying.

At The Upper East Side Vein Institute, vascular specialist Dr. Satjit Bhusri and our team take great pride in offering an excellent choice in vein treatment options, including FDA-approved Asclera®. 

Here’s a look at how this form of sclerotherapy can hit the reset button on your legs, allowing you to show them off with confidence.

What are spider veins and reticular veins

Asclera is a sclerotherapy treatment that’s specifically designed for treating spider and reticular veins in the lower extremities. With that in mind, let’s quickly review what we mean by spider and reticular veins.

First up are spider veins, which affect about half of women and appear as spindly red, blue, or purple veins across the surface of your legs. In point of fact, most spider veins are really damaged capillaries and are typically caused by hormones, genetics, or trauma.

Now let’s move over to reticular veins, which are veins that appear just below the surface of your skin, but don’t bulge out like varicose veins.

Clearing away spider and reticular veins with Asclera

As we mentioned, Asclera is a form of sclerotherapy, which, according to a 2015 study, is the most effective tool for spider and reticular veins.

The active ingredient in Asclera is liquid polidocanol, an irritant that we inject directly into the blood vessel. The polidocanol damages the lining of the blood vessel, a tissue called the endothelium. 

As a result of this damage, platelets and cellular debris collect and attach to the lining of your blood vessel, causing it to clot. Once the blood vessel clots, or closes, the tissue is absorbed by the body, and you’re rewarded with smooth, vein-free legs.

Getting your Asclera treatments

In most cases, we need to administer 1-3 injections of Asclera per vein, and you might need a series of treatments, depending upon how many veins you want to treat.

Each session is less than 45 minutes and often closer to 15 minutes, and you’re free to get on with your day afterward. 

As for recovery, we ask that you wear compression stockings for at least 3-7 days afterward, and we want you to walk around to encourage good blood flow. While walking is good, please avoid heavy exercise. There are other post-care instructions, and we provide you with a comprehensive list.

When it comes to results, most of our patients watch their veins slowly disappear over the course of 4-6 weeks after their final Asclera treatment.

To see for yourself why Asclera is a true workhorse here at The Upper East Side Vein Institute, please call our New York City office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 212-752-3464 to schedule a visit. Or you can request an appointment online by clicking here.