A Recent Overview of Varicose Vein in the Legs

Cho, Kwang Jo

Abstract

Varicose vein is one of the ancient diseases, which has its evidence in Greek sculpture. Nowadays varicose vein has become a popular disease because of the media, so that many people want to treat their varicose vein and many medical doctors from a variety of fields seek a varicose clinic, accordingly. Since the introduction of the great saphenous vein stripping, the treatment of varicose vein has not been changed very much for about 100 years. Recently, however, many doctors in the outpatient varicose clinic prefer less invasive treatment and some innovative techniques that have become available recently. Endovascular treatment or transilluminated powered phlebectomy is one of them. Some dermatologists try to treat all kinds of varicose vein with sclerotherapy. But the long-term results of the treatment reveal that the gold standard of the treatment of typical varicose vein is a groin-to-knee inversion stripping of the great saphenous vein with stab avulsion of the varicose cluster. The application of the color Doppler duplex ultrasonogram to the leg vein has made it possible to evaluate the reflux of axial veins and perforator veins more thoroughly and less invasively. Therefore ultrasonography is the method of choice for the diagnosis of varicose vein preoperatively and postoperative follow-up studies for recurrent cases. The recurrence of varicose vein after treatment is mostly from the remnant reflux in the saphenofemoral junction and its tributary. Thus more meticulous treatment of the tributaries of saphenofemoral junction is needed.