Vein treatment. It looks worse now, after 5 months. What should I do?

this should be seen by a cosmetic laser dermatologist and can be treated with either IPL, Pulsed Dye Laser or Excel V.  However, the underlying vein should be treated in other ways to limit the amount of hyperpigmentation/hemosiderine deposition post treatment.  Best, Dr. Emer.

Hi Anatlouk.  The condition you are experiencing sounds like hemosiderin staining and is common for medium skin types after vein treatments.  We use q-switched lasers to easily remove the brown stains.  We also prefer lasers and Asclera injections to remove the veins.to see an example where we removed hemosiderin staining in our Orange County office from under eye injections click the link below.

Always important to determine whether a patient has underlying, deeper (medical) vein disease before treating a cosmetic vein problem. Many or most who think they have only a cosmetic problem also have significant medical vein disease. Inexperienced vein care physicians or those who only treat surface vein disease will have many patients with the problem you describe. Untreated, medical vein disease will result in cosmetic vein disease that does not improve and/or discoloration as you describe.

No substitute for experience in medicine and, certainly, vein care.

Find an experienced physician who treats both medical and cosmetic vein disease, not just cosmetic vein disease.

Thank yu for your question.1. You can treat the hyperpigmented areas with Q switched lasers.2. Topical products such as Sclerovase and Scleroquin plus help reduce the pigmentation. Sclerovase is applied in the morning. Scleroquin plus is applied in the evening. See the link below for more information. 3. You need a Duplex vein scan to see if there are untreated sources of venous insufficiency.BestDr Karamanoukian

I usually come across patients who have hyperpigmentation "stains" in my office after they have had spider vein injections performed at other clinics.  I believe a common culprit for these ugly stains is that the medication concentration is too strong.  Especially in people who have naturally darker skin (i.e. African-American, Caribbean, Latin American).  I use a weaker concentration in people who have darker skin because these stains can look worse than the original veins.  The above-mentioned lasers can be effective in removing some of these hemosiderin stains.  Prevention is the best medicine!  Good luck.  Dr. C.