Are varicose veins and spider veins the same thing?
No, although they frequently occur together in the same leg, spider veins and varicose veins are different. If you think you have varicose veins, you should be able to close your eyes and FEEL the dilated veins beneath the skin of your legs. By contrast, spider veins which are tangled clusters of minute veins WITHIN the skin cannot ordinarily be felt. When varicose veins and/or spider veins are sufficiently disfiguring or symptomatic to warrant therapy, treatment of the two conditions is different. If varicose veins extend above the knee and are quite extensive, some form of surgery will usually be part of the treatment. This may include STRIPPING out the entire diseased segment, tying off the dilated vein in the groin and/or making multiple small incisions in the leg to “fish out” the damage vein. This type of treatment is never necessary for spider veins!
