[My viewpoint on Psathakis' surgery]

There may be various reasons for a poor functioning of the deep veins valves: one of them is thrombosis. Hypertension progresses then in the superficial vein system and is expressed by trophic disorders: dermatosclerosis and ulcer formation. An original surgical treatment was advocated by Dr. N. Psathakis. This treatment resulted in numerous critics, especially coming from those who never tried it. This method was considered as a non-scientific because the clinical and phlebographic result was not confirmed by non invasive methods. The great advantage of this method is that it is simple, atraumatic and does not alter the normal anatomy. It consists in placing a silicone strip between the femoral vein and the superficial femoral artery. The strip is secured to the biceps muscle and the medial rectus muscle. In the absence of another simple and causal treatment, we have tried this method in approximately 200 patients. We will present our personal clinical results as well as our surgical experience.