TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Lasers and High-Intensity Pulsed Light A1 - Weiss, Robert A. A1 - Weiss, Margaret A. A1 - Beasley, Karen L. PY - 2012 T2 - Sclerotherapy and Vein Treatment, 2e AB - Since the first application of lasers in medicine and surgery, the safe use of light energy to painlessly eliminate spider veins of the leg has been the holy grail of laser technology. However, lasers typically do not achieve equivalent results; sclerotherapy remains the gold standard of treatment for leg veins. As the successful use of lasers and light sources for facial vessels is widely known, patients seeking cosmetic treatment for their legs often request laser as they believe it is more effective, less painful, and less invasive than sclerotherapy. Although sclerotherapy causes an inflammatory reaction sometimes accompanied by side effects such as postsclerosis pigmentation and/or telangiectatic matting, lasers cause tissue destruction by conversion of light energy to heat absorption by the target tissue.1 This heat denatures protein, primarily vein wall collagen, although other blood proteins and muscular layers can denature as well. Heating is a process that should theoretically lead to less of an inflammatory reaction than that seen with sclerosing solutions, but this is not always the case. SN - PB - McGraw Hill LLC CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - dermatology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1175621368 ER -