title: [Saphenous vein-saving surgery--an alternative to stripping].
abstract: Over the past 12 years, long saphenous vein-saving surgery has been explored as an alternative to standard stripping at the Dept. of Surgery, Varberg Hospital, Varberg, Sweden. Four-year follow-up has shown vein-saving surgery, based on pre-operative phlebographic mapping of incompetent perforators and their occlusion at surgery, to yield clinical and plethysmographic outcome comparable to that obtained after standard stripping. The long saphenous vein (LSV) was thus preserved, and the patients reported postoperative discomfort to be milder than that following standard stripping. The findings suggest perforator incompetence to be an early event in the formation of primary varicose veins, and the improved haemodynamic function following vein-saving surgery to be due to the occlusion of incompetent perforators and the restoration of LSV function. This procedure might be worth considering in cases of patients at great risk of needing future arterial reconstruction, or who for any other reason wish to avoid LSV ablation.
authors.affiliation: Kirurgiska kliniken, Sjukhuset i Varberg.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hammarsten
mesh_terms: D005268:Femoral Vein / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D012501:Saphenous Vein / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery*; D014648:Varicose Veins / Q000601:surgery*; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*