Role of duplex imaging in endovenous obliteration for primary venous insufficiency

To assess the role of duplex imaging in defining suitable pathological anatomy for endovenous obliteration and characterizing its treatment outcomes over time.

Eighteen lower limbs in 17 patients (12 women; mean age 48 years; range 29-74 years) presenting with varicose greater saphenous veins (GSVs) were treated with endovenous obliteration without adjunctive high ligation. Duplex imaging was used as an intraprocedural guidance tool for vein access and catheter positioning and for preprocedural evaluation and serial surveillance after the procedures.

In the 18 limbs, preprocedural duplex scanning defined reflux owing to incompetence of the terminal valve (n = 6), subterminal valve (n = 9), or truncal valve (n = 3). Duplex imaging facilitated percutaneous vein puncture and was essential in catheter positioning at the saphenofemoral junction (SFJ). At 1 week, the saphenous trunks of all 18 limbs were either shrunken and obliterated (n = 7) or occluded by thrombus without shrinkage (n = 11). By 6 months, 7 GSVs were no longer sonographically visible, 10 were shrunken and obliterated, and 1 had a segmental partial recanalization. In the 15 limbs with terminal or subterminal valve incompetence at 1 week, 5 had total SFJ obliteration, 4 had > or =1 patent tributaries draining directly into the femoral vein through an open SFJ, and 6 had > or =1 patent tributaries draining into an open SFJ through a short (<2 cm) proximal saphenous trunk. By 6 months, only 1 limb had total SFJ occlusion; the other 14 had at least 1 persistent or reopened tributary.

Duplex scanning is indispensable for selecting patients, guiding the procedure, and defining the morphological maturation and hemodynamic changes that appear to characterize successful endovenous obliteration.