The precise cause of spider veins is still not completely understood. It is currently thought that venous insufficiency and pooling of the blood leads to the development of spider veins. Veins have a series of one-way valves inside of them. This prevents blood from flowing away from the heart. When age, weather conditions, or other physical factors start to influence the vascular system, the vein walls start to expand, causing these valves to fail. Once they fail, blood can start to pool, flowing into the smaller capillaries that feed into the vein. The blood then forces the vessel towards the surface of the skin due to the blood vessels expanded size, creating spider veins. Once veins have expanded to a certain point, their elastic nature no longer applies and they will remain at this size.
There are still several aspect of spider veins that are not entirely understood.
Luckily, spider vein can be treated through non-invasive medical procedures. Typical treatments can be performed in under an hour in the comfort of our physicians office.