Concomitant therapies for varicose veins: Our high-volume, single-center experiences in the UK

Objectives: This study aims to assess the feasibility of combined truncal endothermal ablation (ETA) and ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy (UGFS) in a single treatment session and compare this technique to published re-intervention rates following truncal ablation alone.

Patients and methods: The study was a retrospective data analysis of prospectively collected data. The patients had a preoperative US and then Endothermal Ablation (ETA) with concomitant UGFS. The need for a secondary treatment, technical success, operation time, patient satisfaction, complications, and recurrence were evaluated.

Results: The mean follow-up was 4.4±3.7 months. The technical success was achieved in all patients. Sixty-six (93%) of the patients did not need further treatments. Five patients (7%) needed further interventions with repeated combined ETA and UGFS (n=1, 1.4%) and sclerotherapy (n=4, 5.6%). These interventions did not increase the financial cost of treatment, compared to ETA alone.

Conclusion: Our study results suggest that one-stop dual therapy for the treatment of VV is associated with less need for further treatment, compared to truncal ETA alone without increasing the treatment cost.