[Echo-sclerotherapy of the external saphenous vein]

Echo-sclerotherapy involves the injection of a sclerosing agent into an incompetent varicose vein under ultrasonographic control. This method can be used in the treatment of all varicose veins of the legs but is of particular value when clinical examination is insufficient or difficult because of the large number of anatomical varieties encountered or when the patient is obese and sclerosing injections alone then become difficult. It is chiefly indicated at neurovascular junction sites since injections are much safer because of twin visual control of the syringe and in situ on the ultrasonographic screen. Used during injections of the sapheno-popliteal junction, a region considered to be dangerous, it should enable avoidance of extremely serious complications of sclerosing injections and more particularly that of intra-arterial injection.