title: Varicose veins combined with mucoid degeneration of the venous wall.
abstract: We report on a 56-year-old woman with bilateral chronic venous insufficiency, a cavernous hemangioma at the right thigh and an aneurysm of the left femoral vein, without bone or soft tissue hypertrophy. Histopathology revealed a mucoid degeneration of the media musculature of the venous wall. Such a finding has not yet been described in the world literature. The differential diagnosis must consider a secondary hitherto unknown alteration of varicose veins, a variety of a vascular malformation not yet described, and a primary degeneration of the smooth muscles of the vascular wall followed by the development of varicose veins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Zürich.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Leu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Liechti
mesh_terms: D000783:Aneurysm / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D003238:Connective Tissue / Q000473:pathology; D003560:Cysts / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005268:Femoral Vein / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006391:Hemangioma / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007084:Iliac Vein / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008875:Middle Aged; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D017540:Tunica Media / Q000473:pathology*; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000473:pathology; D014648:Varicose Veins / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery