Venous lakes are dark blue to violet compressible small swelling caused by dilatation of venules. These are common on sun-exposed skin. They also commonly occur on lips and are uncommon before 50 years of age. Venous lakes are soft, compressible, well defined and usually a few mm in size.
Various treatments are available but the best treatment is with long pulsed Nd-Yag laser. There is lack of awareness of this even amongst the medical professionals. A variety of treatment modalities have been described. These include cryotherapy, diathermy, surgery and sclerotherapy. These can cause scarring and textural changes. A variety of lasers have been described but most success has been achieved with the long pulsed Nd-Yag laser.
