title: Properties of polidocanol foam in view of its use in sclerotherapy.
abstract: Foam sclerotherapy is a widely used method to treat varicose veins disease. It is easy to use and apply, affordable, and has high efficiency that depends on foam stability upon injection. Since sclerotherapy is usually applied in a medical doctor's office, one of the most employed methods to generate foam is based on the Tessari technique which uses pumping cycles of liquid and air in-and-out of a double syringe system. Finally, the produced foam exits through a small orifice (∼2mm) at the output of a three-way valve. The present work shows results regarding the factors that may influence foam stability (liquid to air ratio, type of connector, syringe diameter, number of pumping cycles, etc.) of a commonly used sclerosing agent (polidocanol). Furthermore, an effort is made to evaluate the effect of adding different substances on the stability of polidocanol foams (0.5% w/w) by altering the surface tension or/and the bulk and interfacial rheological properties of the fluids. It is shown that adding small concentrations of nonionic surfactants can increase foam stability with just a very small variation of the mean bubbles size.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Laser Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania; Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nastasa
authors.affiliation: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Chemistry, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Samaras
authors.affiliation: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Chemistry, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Ch
authors.initials: Ch
authors.lastname: Ampatzidis
authors.affiliation: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Chemistry, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Karapantsios
authors.affiliation: Instituto Médico Vilafortuny/FUNDACION ANTONI DE GIMBERNAT, Cambrils, Spain.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Trelles
authors.affiliation: Instituto Médico Láser, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moreno-Moraga
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Laser Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania; Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smarandache
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Laser Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest, Romania; Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, Romania. Electronic address: mihai.pascu@inflpr.ro.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Pascu
mesh_terms: D004304:Dosage Forms; D004355:Drug Stability; D005990:Glycerol / Q000737:chemistry; D000077423:Polidocanol; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry; D011136:Polysorbates / Q000737:chemistry; D012212:Rheology; D012597:Sclerosing Solutions / Q000737:chemistry*; D015911:Sclerotherapy; D013499:Surface Properties; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D013594:Syringes; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D004304:Dosage Forms; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial; D011136:Polysorbates; D012597:Sclerosing Solutions; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D000077423:Polidocanol; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D005990:Glycerol; C002563:xanthan gum
keywords: Foam stability; Glycerin (Pubchem CID 753); Polidocanol; Polidocanol (Pubchem CID 24750); Rheology; Sclerotherapy; Surfactant; Tween 80 (Pubchem CID 6364656); Xanthan gum (Pubchem CID 7107, CAS Registry Number: 11138-66-2)