What Is Sclerotherapy Done With?

The clinician uses a fine needle to place a sclerosant inside a selected superficial vein. Depending on the vein and the treatment plan, the solution may be liquid or prepared as foam. Polidocanol and sodium tetradecyl sulfate are examples of sclerosants. The material irritates the inner lining of the vein, encouraging it to seal so blood can travel through other vessels. Ultrasound may help guide treatment when veins are deeper or harder to see.

Share your health history, medicines, allergies, pregnancy status, previous clots, and circulation concerns before treatment. Wear clothing that allows access to the area and follow the clinic’s instructions about medicines and skin products. Afterward, walking and compression may be recommended, while strenuous exercise or prolonged heat exposure may need to wait. Expect possible temporary bruising, redness, itching, or tenderness at injection sites.

Call the treating clinic if swelling, pain, redness, or skin changes are increasing rather than settling. Urgent assessment is needed for sudden breathing difficulty, chest pain, coughing blood, or new one-sided limb swelling and pain. These symptoms are not routine injection-site reactions.

Ask whether liquid or foam will be used, how the vein will be identified, whether compression is needed, when normal exercise can resume, and which symptoms require an urgent call.