Multi-society consensus quality improvement guidelines for the treatment of lower-extremity superficial venous insufficiency with endovenous thermal ablation from the society of interventional radiology, cardiovascular interventional radiological society of Europe, American college of phlebology, and Canadian interventional radiology association.

摘要

Lower-extremity chronic venous disorder (CVD) is a heterogeneous medical condition whose spectrum ranges from visually apparent abnormalities including varicose veins and spider telangiec-tasias with or without associated symptoms to severe edema, skin ulceration, and subsequent major disability. Venous hypertension caused by incompetent valves in the superficial veins is by far the most common cause of this condition. The incompetent valves are most often found in the great saphe-nous vein (GSV) or small saphenous vein (SSV) or in their tributaries. Until recently, the main treatment strategy for incompetence in these veins was to remove them. Endovenous thermal ablation (EVTA) of the saphenous veins has been used by physicians since the late 1990s as an alternative to surgical removal.