Abstract
There exists, hitherto, no unifying standard for the surgical or endovenous
treatment of small saphenous vein incompetence. Thus, a direct comparability of
these two treatment modalities has been, so far, restricted. Particularly,
differing definitions of recurrent small saphenous vein incompetence impede this
comparability. There is a lack of prospective randomised studies of long term
results. On account of this scanty data, a basic recommendation for or against
one treatment option or the other is currently not possible. However, in daily
practice, there are significant advantages for both, the surgical as well as
endovenous therapies, even without the corresponding comparative studies. The
recurrence rates are high among both approaches. A complete removal of the
pathologically altered vein is, nonetheless, undertaken during neither surgical
nor endovenous therapy. The extent to which a complete removal of the
sapheno-popliteal junction, with implementation of the crossectomy (or high
ligation) principle, can contribute to the amelioration of outcomes should be
clarified by future studies.
Key words
Small saphenous vein incompetence - sapheno-popliteal junction - crossectomy