The Effects of Foam Sclerotherapy for the Treatment of Lower Limb Varicose Veins

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of foam sclerotherapy, we compared the clinical data and results of foam sclerotherapy with conventional sclerotherapy. METHOD: Ninety-three cases of varicose veins were retrospectively reviewed; these were treated by sclerotherapy from January 2000 to September 2005 (women 82 cases, men 12 cases, mean age 43.7 years old). The enrolled cases were divided into the conventional sclerotherapy (CS) group (n=53) and the foam sclerotherapy (FS) group (n=40) according to the applied technique. We assessed the results with the disappearance scoring scale (DSS) and the satisfaction scoring scale (SSS). RESULT: In DSS, complete disappearance was reported as 28.3% by physicians and 30.2% by the patients in CS group and as 47.5% and 52.5% in the FS group, respectively. On the SSS, a satisfaction score scale above 3 (4 Good, 5 Very good) was reported for 79.1% in the CS group and 90.0% in the FS group, retrospectively. The average amounts of sclerosants used were significantly lower in the FS group (1.2+/-0.4 vials) than in the CS group (2.1+/-0.5 vials)(P=0.001). Post injection complications were retrospectively observed in 16.1% of all the patients, in 20.7% of the CS group and in 10.0% of the FS group. CONCLUSION: Sclerotherapy is a very effective and sufficient treatment for telangiectases or reticular varicose veins. Especially, foam sclerotherapy is more effective than conventional liquid sclerotherapy for the clinical results and the patient satisfaction, and it shows a with lower incidence of complications.