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Peripheral Artery Disease

Louis Messina, MD, chief of vascular and endovascular surgery at UMass Memorial Medical Center and professor of surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Physician

Louis Messina, MD

Q:

I have spider veins and don’t know what to do about this? what are my options?

A:

Spider veins can be easily treated with either tiny injections or skin laser, depending on the size of the veins. The legs should be evaluated to be sure that there is no underlying varicose vein disease that needs to be corrected first. If injection therapy is used, compression stockings will need to be worn for a few days after the treatment.

Spider vein treatment is considered cosmetic, so this will be an out-of-pocket expense.

We offer vein evaluation and spider vein treatment at UMass Memorial through the Vascular Surgery Vein Clinic, 508-856-5599.

Q:

For the past two weeks my arms and legs fall asleep as I am sleeping. It causes me to wake up in the night. Could this be related to a vascular condition?

A:

A sensation that your arms and legs fall asleep while you are sleeping is very unlikely to be due to a vascular cause. While sudden loss of circulation to an extremity can be associated with a loss of feeling in the limb, it usually accompanied by pain. It would be very rare to have transient loss of circulation in all four limbs simultaneously. Symptoms such as you are experiencing are more likely related to a neurological condition or your level of sleep.

Q:

Lately I have been having the following symptoms: fatigue, generalized weakness, headache, nausea, lack of appetite, tingling in both hands and finger tips, white shimmering in front of my eyes, lightheadedness, hyperventilate, dizziness and feel like I may pass out.

Bottom line the symptoms are persistent and I am very worried some medical condition exists that has not been detected yet.

Do you think a thorough cardiovascular checkup is warranted? Please advise. Thank you.

A:

Sorry you are not well. It is not clear that your symptoms are due to a cardiovascular disease. I suggest seeing your Primary Care Physician who can do preliminary tests.