Island Girl, can you tell us a little more? Did your dermatologist recommend treatment or surgery (perhaps laser surgery)?
A venous lake is just that -- a small "lake" filled with blood from your veins that has developed, sometimes on the ears and as with you, on the lip. (They are actually similar to varicose veins, which occur most often on the legs).
Arteries take oxygen-rich blood from your heart to your organs and extremities; veins are the blood vessels that carry that blood back to the heart to pick up more oxygen. Veins have one-way valves that help to keep the blood flowing toward the heart. When the valves don’t work well, blood backs up and pools, creating the blue area that you see.
You might appreciate reading a little more about varicose veins from the Mayo Clinic site:
From what I could research on the web (in addition to Anon, above), it appears that there is not medicine available to treat a venous lake, and that it won't go away by itself. Diet doesn't have anything to do with it -- it isn't something you can make worse or better by what you take in. And they aren't contagious, nor should they proliferate. And they do not evolve into anything more serious, like a skin cancer.
Dermatologists Jining Wang (Dean Health System) and Kim Wang (Department of Pathology, Northwestern University Medical School) wrote an article discussion venous lakes and their treatments, which can include laser or photo therapy:
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Island Girl, can you tell us a little more? Did your dermatologist recommend treatment or surgery (perhaps laser surgery)?
A venous lake is just that -- a small "lake" filled with blood from your veins that has developed, sometimes on the ears and as with you, on the lip. (They are actually similar to varicose veins, which occur most often on the legs).
Arteries take oxygen-rich blood from your heart to your organs and extremities; veins are the blood vessels that carry that blood back to the heart to pick up more oxygen. Veins have one-way valves that help to keep the blood flowing toward the heart. When the valves don’t work well, blood backs up and pools, creating the blue area that you see.
You might appreciate reading a little more about varicose veins from the Mayo Clinic site:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/varicose-veins/DS00256
From what I could research on the web (in addition to Anon, above), it appears that there is not medicine available to treat a venous lake, and that it won't go away by itself. Diet doesn't have anything to do with it -- it isn't something you can make worse or better by what you take in. And they aren't contagious, nor should they proliferate. And they do not evolve into anything more serious, like a skin cancer.
Dermatologists Jining Wang (Dean Health System) and Kim Wang (Department of Pathology, Northwestern University Medical School) wrote an article discussion venous lakes and their treatments, which can include laser or photo therapy:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1085199-treatment
If you'll write back and let us know what your dermatologist is suggesting as treatment, we'd be glad to research more for you.
December 23, 2008 - 10:34amThis Comment
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