[Late clinical and phlebographic findings in Paget-von Schroetter syndrome]

Of altogether 33 patients (20 males and 13 females) with clinical and phlebographically ascertained Paget-von-Schroetter syndrome the informations of the medical records from 1975 to 1985 were retrospectively analysed. From one to nine years 23 patients could clinically be followed up according to different forms of therapy and 17 of them underwent a phlebographic follow-up examination. The self-estimation of the load capacity of the diseased arm was approximately 50-100%. In 30% of the patients we observed subcutaneous dilations of the veins of the shoulder-arm region. Only in three of 17 cases an unhandicapped patency of the veins could be proved phlebographically one, three to four years after treatment. In ca. 80% of the cases the control phlebograms distinctly showed postthrombotic obstruction stenoses and changes of the wall, respectively. By the formation of a widely branched collateral circulation a compensation of the venous outflow is obtained. This functional "healing" reflects also in the good and very good results, respectively, of the clinical after-examination.