Spider Naevi Singular But Bright Points Of Difference

Spider naevi arise out of nowhere, growing slowly over time. As they stand above the skin surface their light reflection can make them even more obvious.

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In certain situations they can disappear. Most will increase to a point and remain.

Grazing their surface can result in quite significant bleeding.

This risk and their singular appearance on your face can cause you to seek treatment.

Fortunately this remains very simple. If the right equipment is available.

Spider naevi on the face can appear very obvious as with this one on the tip of the nose

History

Spider naevi, naevus being the single form of the noun, can appear in early childhood.

If they do so there is a good chance they may actually regress with time and disappear. Rather like a strawberry naevus.

Beyond this age they will persist.

Usually they will continue to enlarge for some time and then stabilise. Local trauma and rubbing could cause them to increase in size further.

Composition

A naevus is a raised skin point. The most common naevus is the pigmented one we know commonly as a mole.

But spider naevi are vascular in nature.

Their basic structure is a central fine arteriolar vessel. Draining this are fine veins. These give the appearance of spider legs. Hence the name.

High pressure in the central arteriole is the reason they will bleed quite vigorously if the surface is broken.

It is also the reason they stand out above your skin surface.

They can occur anywhere on the body.

Provoking Causes

Hormonal changes like pregnancy can produce new ones. Similar to those arising in childhood these can often regress and disappear after delivery.

More than five on your body usually will cause us to look for an underlying liver problem. I will discuss this more elsewhere.

For most people I see this is not the case.

Spider naevi can occur anywhere but this is a further one on the face area

There are certainly genetic links in some families who will have them more frequently than the average population.

Again, as with other surface veins, they will stand out more in colour and size with increased heat and exercise. Along with the increased general skin circulation.

Types Of Management

Assuming there is no underlying hormonal or liver trigger they can be relatively easily managed.

Often beauty therapists will use their diathermy devices to seal them.  Similar equipment with radio-frequency energy can be used.

With both these care needs to be taken to not damage the skin to leave a long term scar.

As they bleed so readily when disturbed, frequently higher energies are needed to prevent this. Doing so will produce deeper heating and subsequent possible scarring.