Summary
Introduction
Compression therapy is one of the basic methods of phlebology. Interviews with German phlebologists showed that about 30 % of the patients are treated with compression stockings after sclerotherapy.
Methods
To figure out if sclerotherapy followed by compression therapy leads to better results a systematic literature research in Medline, Pubmed Central and Embase was performed. To this topic five prospective randomized studies were found, one prospective cohort study and guideline recommendations.
Results
The literature shows that compression therapy up to 3 weeks after sclerotherapy of telangiectasia leads to improved results and a reduction of pigmentation. The data on foam sclerotherapy of larger veins differs. One prospective randomized study showed no positive effect after compression therapy. One prospective cohort study showed better results using compression therapy after sclerotherapy in reliance of patient compliance.
Conclusion
The guidelines recommend compression therapy after sclerotherapy with no recommendation to the duration of the compression therapy. In behalf of the limited data there are more studies necessary to prove the positive effect of compression therapy after sclerotherapy.
Keywords
Compression - sclerotherapy - Duration of Compression - Compression stockings
