Vascular Lesion

At the Chiltern Medical Clinics, we favour the KTP laser for the treatment of many types of facial vein and are experienced at treating a wide range of vascular lesions, including:

Facial telangectasisa (‘broken veins’)

Tiny blood vessels under the skin that have become enlarged or dilated and thus more noticeable.

Capillary haemangioma (‘spider naevi’)

Small clumps of blood vessels which appear on the surface of the skin. They are described as “spiders” because of their appearance. They are very common and are usually seen in the upper part of the body, face, neck, upper chest and arms.

Campbell de Morgan spots

Little tufted proliferations of blood vessels just under the surface of the skin. Most of these are genetically programmed. If you look closely at older family members, inevitably, they have the same spots.

Port Wine Stains (‘birthmarks’)

A port-wine stain is a red or purple mark on the skin. It is usually present from birth. About 3 in 1,000 babies are born with a port-wine stain. Most occur on the face but any area of the skin can be affected.

Rosacea (redness of face)

Rosacea is primarily a facial diagnosis. Symptoms often begin with episodes of flushing (where the skin turns red for a short period), but other symptoms can develop as the condition progresses, such as:

• burning and stinging sensations
• permanent redness
• spots (papules and pustules)
• small blood vessels in the skin becoming visible

Erythema/redness associated with Rosacea

Erythema (flushing and redness) can affect the central face and across the cheeks, nose, or forehead but can also less commonly affect the neck and chest. As rosacea progresses, other symptoms can develop such as semi-permanent erythema, telangiectasia (dilation of superficial blood vessels on the face), red domed papules (small bumps) and pustules, red gritty eyes, burning and stinging sensations, and in some advanced cases, a red lobulated nose (rhinophyma).

Cherry Angiomas

Cherry angiomas are smooth, round, red bumps on the skin. They can be as small as a pinhead or as big as a pencil eraser. The colour may darken to a purplish red over time

The cause of broken capillaries and facial veins can be genetic, and more commonly experienced by people with fair skin. Lifestyle habits such as sunbathing and drinking alcohol can increase your chances of developing facial veins.

We use the Aura-KTP laser. This is a vascular laser that specifically treats broken capillaries and/or vessels on the face.

The KTP laser works on a specific wavelength that is absorbed by the colour of blood in the vessels. Using a handheld device, we are able to place the laser light across the damaged capillaries, causing them to go into spasm and disappear as they are being treated.

The procedure is relatively quick. No anaesthesia is required. During the treatment, you will need to wear goggles to protect your eyes from the laser light.

Although facial veins and lesions can be treated by alternative methods such as sclerotherapy, electrocautery, Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) or pulse dye laser, we generally recommend the Aura KTP lasers for a number of reasons.

Having used these lasers in our clinics for many years, they have consistently delivered outstanding results and very happy patients. The KTP lasers are safe, with low risk of damaging the skin with burns or other complications. They are also effective for all of the conditions listed above.

With KTP laser treatment, there is very little down time and the treatment is relatively painless. The sensation has been described as having a rubber band snapping against the skin.

Although other methods for treating vascular lesions exist, they each have disadvantages. Electrocautery, for example, carries risks of scarring and is not practicable or effective for large areas of broken vessels or port wine stain.

IPL requires multiple treatments and, even then, is not as efficient as KTP laser treatments in our experience. It is also not effective or practicable for areas such as the sides of the nose due to the size of the hand-piece.

As discussed on our Leg Veins page, Sclerotheraphy is a very good treatment for leg veins but less suitable for small facial veins.
Pulse dye laser treatment is effective but it tends to require considerable down time as it causes significant bruising known as Purpura.

Yes. The smaller pink veins around the sides of the nose are problematic to eliminate in a number of patients. Surprisingly, if they are bigger they are often easier to remove. Yet, some very large blue veins on the bulb/tip of the nose – more often found in males – can be difficult to reduce completely but they are generally much improved and significantly less visible after treatment.

Although you will benefit significantly from a single laser treatment with broken facial vessels, it may not be possible to treat all the vessels in one session. It may be beneficial to have more than one treatment but we would always discuss this with you at your initial consultation. As an average, most patients are very satisfied with the results after just two treatments.

Campbell de Morgan spots will normally disappear in one treatment, as will the majority of spider naevi.

Port wine stains will benefit from each treatment but may require multiple treatments to gain significant improvement.

We normally recommend that you leave one month between treatments. Although there has been no cases of evidence to suggest that there is any drawback to leaving longer periods between treatments.

Most people find that the vessels go into spasm and remain closed. Some patients, however, find that some of the vessels may re-open in the following weeks. In a few instances, especially with what we call ‘soft’ vessels, the blood may clot/coagulate within the vessels and will appear black or bluish for a week or more and then disappear when the coagulated blood is metabolised and absorbed.

We will give you a handout explaining your treatment and everything you need to know about your aftercare. This is a useful document to refer back to during any stage of the treatment.

After the treatment, aloe vera gel is applied to soothe the skin. In the majority of cases, the skin settles within half an hour. No bandages are involved.

You will need to follow specific instructions for the immediate post-procedure period. The main thing to remember is to avoid anything that could make your face flush, as this could re-open the treated capillaries. These things would include alcohol, very hot baths or showers, saunas, spas, solariums and vigorous exercise. Although these things aren’t dangerous, they may prevent the treatment from achieving the desired results. We simply advise avoiding these activities for a few days.

I have a holiday planned and will be out in the sun – can I have my facial veins treated beforehand?

Avoiding the sun after the treatment is necessary as the heat can have an adverse effect on the results. A risk of pigmentary change is also present from sun exposure.

However, we personally have never had our patients encounter the above after a KTP laser treatment. The risk of pigmentary change is much more significant in the ‘ablative laser treatments’. These include laser resurfacing and stringent sun avoidance measures need to be taken after these laser treatments.

It is preferred you defer your treatment until your tan has faded, however we are still able to perform the treatment with the same satisfying results.

Yes you are. Broken veins are less common in darker skin types but we do treat facial veins in Type 5 skin.

This treatment can be performed by the doctor, nurse and some of the skilled laser therapists at the Chiltern Medical Clinics. The same treatment protocols are employed by all the therapists in our clinics.

We have several years of experience with this type of laser for facial vein removal and we have treated thousands of cases within this time. Our medical background, ongoing training and use of cutting-edge laser equipment means that we have experience of treating a wide range of facial veins and vascular lesions.

We have been offering laser treatments for over a decade and have never experienced a returning patient with all their facial veins having reappeared. Some patients will come back for further treatment after several years – simply because new facial veins often develop as we age – but they will most often have fewer veins than when they were initially treated.

Naturally, it is important to avoid sunburn and other factors which may contribute to the development of new broken facial veins.

Yes, we do. We commonly treat vessels and spider naevi on the chest/décolleté area. This is a common site of sun damage and associated vascular changes. We also commonly treat Campbell de Morgan spots on the body, including on the arms, shoulders and legs.

Yes, we have never encountered any problems in this regard.

At the Chiltern Medical Clinic we specialise in non-burning, no downtime techniques. Most of our patients require no anaesthetic for the treatments, and can return immediately to their daily routine.

The cost of facial vein treatment will be determined at your consultation, as it is difficult to assess how much treatment will be required until we see the area concerned.