Transilluminated Powered Phlebectomy Using Arthroscopic Equipment in Varicose Vein of Lower Extremities

Lee, Seock Yeol; Park, Hyung Joo; Lee, Cheol Sae; Lee, Kihl Rho

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recently transilluminated powered phlebectomy was introduced and used as a method of surgical treatment for varicose vein in lower extremities. The advantages of transilluminated powered phlebectomy are minimal scar and good cosmetic effect. However, the disadvantages of transilluminated powered phlebectomy is that a high priced Trivex system must be used which increases the patient's expenses. Therefore, we performed a transilluminated powered phlebectomy using an existing arthroscopic equipment instead of Trivex system and observed the effect of treatment and efficiency of the treatment. MATERIAL AND METHOD: From March, 2000 to February, 2003, 78 patients (113 limbs) underwent transilluminated powered phlebectomy with an arthroscopic equipment. Patient's disease history, the number of operative scars and complications were reviewed. RESULT: The operation was performed in 133 limbs of the 78 patients (34 men, 44 women) and the age of patients were ranged from 16 to 72 years with mean age of 41.8 years. Operative time ranged from 20 to 65 minutes (average 48.7 minutes) per limb. The number of operative scar per limb from 2 to 7 (average 4.9). Postoperative complications are transient ecchymosis (78 cases) that disappeared spontaneously, edema persisting longer than 3 weeks (6 cases), remnant varicose vein (4 cases), skin perforation during operative procedure (2 cases), and contact dermatitis due to compression stocking (4 cases) The mean hospitalization day was 3.09 days. Subjective mean satisfaction degree of operation by the patients using a visual analogue scale was 92.6%.
CONCLUSION
Our findings demonstrated that transilluminated powered phlebectomy using arthroscopic equipment was posssible and had good cosmetic results with acceptable complications.