Patient Instructions

Pre- and Post-Treatment Instructions for
Injection Sclerotherapy

Thank you for choosing The Vein Center of Virginia for your injection sclerotherapy treatments. For optimum results, your treatment must be a combined effort between you and your treatment team. Careful attention to this information will help optimize your final outcome.

Sclerotherapy usually requires more than one series of injections which will be determined in your initial consultation.

The injections are performed with you lying down. You will feel some slight discomfort from the fine needle sticks, the number of which will be determined by the number of veins requiring treatment. The medication may cause mild discomfort on injection.

The average treatment session takes approximately 30 minutes. You may feel more comfortable wearing a pair of shorts during your treatment.

The veins will look worse before they look better. By this, we mean that you may have red, angry looking spider veins for a few weeks before fading begins. Some of the larger injected veins may turn dark or become hard and tender for several weeks to a few months. There will be some bruising at the injection sites that will decrease over approximately one month's time. In many cases, there may be some residual brownish pigmentation that will gradually fade.

You may need additional treatment of some areas if the vein remains "open."

Your legs may be wrapped or you may be given a prescription for compressive stockings to be worn after your treatment if necessary. For optimal results, you wil need to wear compressive stockings for 5 days after each treatment.

Please do not moisturize or put oil of any sort on your legs on treatment day.

Avoid prolonged sitting or standing, squatting, lifting heavy weights, or pounding-type leg exercises after the injections for 48 hours.

We strongly encourage you to continue to elevate your legs for 2-3 hours at home following injections.

Please massage the treated area for approximately 15 minutes twice daily for two weeks.

Read the Risks and Complications for Injection Sclerotherapy
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