Recent developments on foaming mechanical and electronic techniques for the management of varicose veins

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Varicose veins are a common disease, causing significant impairment of quality of life to afflicted individuals. Conventional surgery has represented the traditional treatment for years, with significant post-operative complications. By the end of the 20^th century, novel approaches had been developed to induce biochemical sclerosis into the treated vein in order to exclude it from blood circulation.

Areas covered: Foaming techniques for treatment of varicose veins, both clinically–approved methods and those under experimental studies. A brief description of cavitation, which is the basis of microbubbles formation, and an overview of foam properties have been also provided, including a discussion on clinical efficacy and safety profile.

Expert commentary: Foam sclerotherapy has rapidly gained popularity since it represents the most minimally invasive and cost-effective procedure in the short term. Several different methods of foam preparation have been described in literature. In general, the foam generation method may affect characteristics such as stability and bubble size distribution, which in turn affect the therapeutic action of foam itself. Therefore, the selection of a suitable foaming technique is of importance for treatment success. Future developments on foaming techniques are expected to make sclerotherapy, already an effective treatment, even safer and more versatile therapeutic procedure.

KEYWORDS:

• Device
• foam
• foaming techniques
• varicose veins
• sclerotherapy

Article Highlights

• Foam sclerotherapy represents an effective treatment for patients affected by dilatation of veins such as varicose veins.

• Manual techniques for foam preparations are the most dated but also the most widespread modalities used by clinicians.

• Serious neurological complications have been reported after foam injections.

• Different techniques have been proposed with the aim of increasing the safety profile of treatment.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.