Failure of quantitative venous photoplethysmography to assess venous insufficiency: a prospective clinical study

The increase of deep venous reconstructive surgery necessitates reliable tests for evaluation of the results, which requires quantization of the expelled volume. This could only be done with invasive measurements, but now it seems possible to calibrate photoelectric cells, and quantize the results. Nineteen limbs of patients with deep venous disease and seven limbs of healthy volunteers were evaluated, with methods known from the literature. In addition to measurements in standing position, these methods were used in the more patient-friendly sitting position. Invasively and noninvasively measured recovery times correlated well in the standing (R = 0.83) and in the sitting position (R = 0.86). However, the quantization of expelled volume did not significantly correlate. Also, the differences between expelled volume of controls and patients were only significant with invasive measurements in the standing position (P = 0.006) as well as in the sitting position (P = 0.004). The differences were not significant with the noninvasive method. In our opinion, photoelectric cells still do not offer an alternative for invasive measurements in the evaluation of results after venous reconstructive surgery.