Surgical therapy of postoperative recurrent varicose veins

Abstract

Objective To summarize the etiologic factors and evaluate the clinical outcome of reoperations on 119 limbs of recurrent varicose veins.Methods Retrospective analysis was made on etiologic factors of 119 limbs (113 patients) of recurrent varicose veins admitted to our hospital from January 2007 to June 2013.All patients underwent color duplex ultrasonography and anterograde venography of the lower extremity and were treated by reoperations.Results In the 119 limbs,102 limbs (85.7％) had residual main great saphenous veins or tributaries,97 limbs (81.5％) had incompetent perforator veins,23 limbs (19.3％) had neovascularization,9 limbs (7.6％) had incompetent small saphenous veins,21 limbs (17.6％) had incompetent femoral veins,6 limbs (5.0％) had iliac vein compression syndrome,and Budd Chiari syndrome was found as the cause of recurrence in 1 limb (0.8％).Postoperative patients were followed-up for 6-72 m (32-± 7 m).The cure rate of varicose veins were 100％.There was not recurrence of varicose veins,postoperative VCSS was 0-5 (1.2 ±0.5) vs preoperative 1-17 (6.2 ±2.5)(P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions Residual and incompetent great saphenous veins or tributaries and incompetent perforator veins were the main etiologic factors of postoperative recurrent varicose veins.Therapeutic principle for recurrent varicose veins is to eliminating the reverse flow of superficial vein system and ligate incompetent perforator veins. Key words: Varicose veins; Recurrence; Reoperation; Neovascularization