[66% glucose, a safe sclerosant. Experimental study]

Although accidents due to the intra-arterial injection of detergent sclerosant are very rarely observed, they are dramatic in their effects and often result in amputations, a risk accepted with difficulty for a treatment with a functional aim. To avoid these incidents, which may occur even when treatment is applied by the most experienced surgeons, the authors have used 66% glucose solution without accident since 1948. To confirm efficacy of the method, an experimental study compared 66% glucose (66 G) with a very commonly used product, 1% sodium tetradecyl sulfate (STD), in the rabbit. Except when enormous doses of 66 G are employed, the only effect noted was eosinophilic necrosis of the vessel wall without clinical symptoms, whereas doses eight times lower of STD produced an irreversible ischemia from obliterating endarteritis of the branches of the vascular tree injected. The 66% glucose solution appears to be a very safe, gently acting sclerosant, and the product of choice for peri- and post-operative sclerosis, particularly in regions where accidental arterial puncture is anatomically possible.