[Emergencies in phlebology]

Venous diseases which require emergency care include deep venous thrombosis, superficial thrombophlebitis and variceal bleeding. The clinical diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis is often inaccurate, but can be confirmed in most cases with noninvasive tools such as sonography and d-dimer testing. Standard therapy includes compression of the leg and low molecular weight heparin in a therapeutic dosage. Superficial thrombophlebitis includes a variety of disease processes involving superficial veins, some thrombotic and others inflammatory. The most important is varicophlebitis or varicothrombosis, which involves the deep venous system in up to 20% of cases. Along with immediate surgical procedures when the thrombus reaches the deep venous system in the groin, short term therapy with low molecular weight heparin can be used. Variceal bleeding is a typical complication of severe varicose veins. It can be treated by elevating the leg and compression therapy. In addition sclerotherapy or ligation of the bleeding vein can be performed.