Outpatient varicose vein surgery under local anaesthesia

Local anaesthesia has been used for 186 varicose vein operations performed in a day surgical unit. The long saphenous vein was stripped in 87 legs using a femoral nerve block. All patients went home on the day of operation and none required readmission. Complications were minimal and included six wound infections, six episodes of thrombophlebitis and one case of saphenous neuritis; 35 patients had minor residual varices at 6 weeks of which 29 required injection sclerotherapy. The technique has been shown to be both safe and acceptable to patients, and reduced the waiting time for surgery to a mean of 3.1 months during the period studied.