Preoperative and intraoperative evaluation of diameter-reflux relationship of calf perforating veins in patients with primary varicose vein.
OBJECTIVE
Interruption of incompetent perforating veins (PVs) is important for varicose vein surgery. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the preoperative and intraoperative diameter-reflux relationship of PVs and to evaluate the accuracy of preoperative duplex scanning in patients with varicose vein.


METHODS
Patients with primary varicose veins were retrospectively investigated. Diameters and reflux of PVs were evaluated before surgery with color flow duplex ultrasound scan (US). During operation, the incompetent PVs were defined as those that showed an outward spurt of blood flow from the stump of the PVs. The sensitivity and specificity of US in the detection of reflux of PVs were calculated. Competent versus incompetent vein diameters were compared with the Student t test and one-way analysis of variance.


RESULTS
Three hundred twenty-four calf PVs were detected in 304 legs of 175 patients with varicose vein. Diameters of competent and incompetent PVs confirmed with intraoperative finding averaged 2.67 +/- 1.10 mm (n = 28) and 3.28 +/- 1.01 mm (n = 58), respectively, at the upper calf (P =.012), 2.85 +/- 0.85 mm (n = 53) and 3.68 +/- 0.94 mm (n = 137), respectively, at the lower calf (p <.001), and 2.67 +/- 0.99 mm (n = 14) and 3.27 +/- 0.66 mm (n = 22), respectively, at the posterior calf (P =.036). The overall sensitivity of detection of reflux with US was 87.7%, and the specificity was 75.3%. Diameters of true-incompetent PVs and false-incompetent PVs were 3.59 +/- 0.94 mm (n = 199) and 3.31 +/- 0.84 mm (n = 24), respectively (P =.157). Diameters of true-competent PVs and false-competent PVs were 2.61 +/- 0.91 mm (n = 73) and 2.89 +/- 0.82 mm (n = 28), respectively (P =.158).


CONCLUSIONS
Although the diameter of incompetent PVs was larger than that of competent PVs in both US and intraoperative findings, diameter measurement alone can not completely distinguish competent and incompetent PVs. The sensitivity and specificity of reflux obtained with US showed that the accuracy of preoperative duplex scanning to evaluate PV competency was not sufficient.
Yamamoto
Naoto
N
Second Department of Surgery, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handayama, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan 431-3192.
Unno
Naoki
N
Mitsuoka
Hiroshi
H
Saito
Takaaki
T
Miki
Keita
K
Ishimaru
Kei
K
Kaneko
Hiroshi
H
Nakamura
Satoshi
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D007866:Leg / Q000098:blood supply / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011300:Preoperative Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018615:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color; D014648:Varicose Veins / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery*; D014689:Venous Insufficiency / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery*